|
Recent Publications by CeZAP Affiliated Faculty
|
|
Bottled and Well Water Quality in a Small Central Appalachian Community: Household-Level Analysis of Enteric Pathogens, Inorganic Chemicals, and Health Outcomes in Rural Southwest Virginia Cohen, A., Rasheduzzaman, M., Darling, A., Krometis, LA, Edwards, M., Brown, T., Ahmed, T., Wettstone, E., Pholwat, S., Taniuchi, M., & Rogawski McQuade, E.T. Int J. Environ. Res Public Health DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19148610
Development of a Controlled Laboratory-scale Inoculation System to Study Vibrio parahaemolyticus-oyster Interactions Hines I, Smith S, Kuhn DD, Stevens AM. FEMS Microbiol Lett DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnac055
Critical review of antibiotic resistance genes in the atmosphere Kormos D, Lin K, Pruden A, Marr LC Environ Sci Process Impacts DOI: 10.1039/d2em00091a
Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring of Water Environments: A Framework for Standardized Methos and Quality Control Liguori K, Keenum I, Davis B, Calarco J, Milligan E, Harwood V, Pruden A. Environ Sci Technol DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c08918
Surface-enhanced Raman spectorscopy enabled evaluation of bacterial inactivation Wang W, Rahman A, Huang Q, Vikesland P. Water Res DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118668
Reconstruction landscapes of ungulate parturition and predation using vegetation phenology Van de Vuurst P, Moore S, Isaac E, Chenauz-Ibrahim Y, Wolf T, Escobar LE Curr Zool DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoab058
Impact of Electronic Polarization on Preformed, β-Strand Rich Homogenous and Heterogenous Amyloid Oligomers. King KM, Sharp AK, Davidson DS, Brown AM, Lemkul JA. J Comput Biophys Chem
DOI: 10.1142/s2737416521420059
Human Milk Oligosaccharides Impact Cellular and Inflammatory Gene Expression and Immune Response Rosa F, Sharma AK, Gurung M, Casero D, Matazel K, Bode L, Simecka C, Elolimy AA, Tripp P, Randolph C, Hand TW, Williams KD, LeRoith T, Yeruva L. Front Immunol.
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.907529
Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor Activation Synergizes the Knockdown and Toxicity of GABA-Gated Chloride Channel Insecticides Xie N, Gross A. Pest Manag Sci DOI: 10.1002/ps.7079
Comparison of Bulk- vs. Layer-by-layer-cured Stimuli-responsive PNIPAM-Alginate Hydrogel Dynamic Viscoelastic Property Response via Embedded Sensors Liu Y, Bethel K, Singh M, J. Zhang J, Ashkar R, Davis E, Johnson B. ACS Applied Polymer Materials DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.2c00634
|
Infectious disease and congnition in wild populations Townsend A, Sewall K, Leonard A, Hawley D. Trends in Ecology & Evolution DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.06.005
Infection strategy and biogeography distinguish cosmopolitan groups of marine jumbo bacteriophages Weinheimer A, Aylward F. ISME J. DOI: 10.1038/s41396-022-01214-x
Morphological and molecular characterization of Quinqueserialis (Digenea: Notocotylidae) species diversity in North America-CORRIGENDUM.
Gagnon DK, Kasl EL, Preisser WC, Belden LK, Detwiler JT. Parasitology
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182021001219
The SKBR3 cell-membrane proteome reveals telltales of aberrant cancer cell proliferation and targets for precision medicine applications Karcini A, Lazar L Sci Rep DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-14418-0
Mining transcriptome data: Utilization of environmentally regulated promoters for protein expression and purification in Clostridium perfringens. Soncini SR, Camper GJ, Melville SB. J Microbiol Methods DOI: 10.1016/j.mimet.2022.106519
The Shigella Spp. Type III Effector Protein OspB Is a Cysteine Protease. Wood TE, Westervelt KA, Yoon JM, Eshleman HD, Levy R, Burnes H, Slade DJ, Lesser CF, Goldberg MB mBio. DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01270-22
Partial masculinization of Aedes aegypti females by conditional expression of Nix.
Kojin BB, Jakes E, Biedler JK, Tu Z, Adelman ZN. PLoS Negl Trop Dis.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010598
The AalNix3&4 isoform is required and sufficient to convert Aedes albopictus females into males.
Zhao Y, Jin B, Liu P, Xiao X, Cai L, Xie Z, Kong L, Liu T, Yang W, Wu Y, Gu J, Tu Z, James AA, Chen XG. PLoS Genet
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010280
Dominant remodelling of cattle rumen microbiome by Schedonorus arundinaceus (tall fescue) KY-31 carrying a fungal endophyte. Khairunisa BH, Susanti D, Loganathan U, Teutsch CD, Campbell BT, Fiske D, Wilkinson CA, Aylward FO, Mukhopadhyay B. Access Microbiol. DOI: 10.1099/acmi.0.000322
Cholesterol stiffening of lipid membranes and drug interactions: Insights from neutron spin echo and deuterium NMR spectroscopy. Gupta S, Doole FT, Kumarage T, Doktorova M, Khelashvili G, Ashkar R, Brown MF. Cholesterol Chapter 29 DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-85857-1.00037-7
A Time-of-Flight EXPanded Angle Neutron Spin Echo Spectrometer at the Second Target Station of the Spallation Neutron Source, Review of Scientific Instruments C. Do C., Ashkar R, et al. Expanse DOI: 10.1063/5.0089349
|
|
|
COVID-19 Outreach Activities by CeZAP Affiliated Faculty Linsey Marr
COVID-19 Publications by CeZAP Affiliated Faculty
A Hybrid Epidemic Model to Explore Stochasticity in COVID-19 Dynamics.
Hwang KKL, Edholm CJ, Saucedo O, Allen LJS, Shakiba N Bull Math Biol DOI: 10.1007/s11538-022-01030-6.
Alterations in the molecular composition of COVID-19 patient urine, detected using Raman spectroscopic/computational analysis. Robertson JL, Senger RS, Talty J, Du P, Sayed-Issa A, Avellar ML, Ngo LT, Gomez De La Espriella M, Fazili TN, Jackson-Akers JY, Guruli G, Orlando G. PLoS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270914
|
|
|
Recent Research Grants Awarded to CeZAP Affiliated Faculty
|
|
- NSF 2200045 PIPP Phase I: Community Informed Computational Prevention of Pandemics $1 Million
- PI TM Murali Other faculty on this grant are Padma Rajagopalan, Anuj Karpatne, and Sanket Deshmukh (College of Engineering), XJ Meng, Laura Hungerford, Kathy Hosig, and James Weger (VMCVM), Lisa Lee (OVPR), and Paul Skolnik (formerly of Carilion Clinic).
- $1 Million 08/22 - 01/24
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed multiple gaps in our understanding of how viruses emerge to infect humans. This Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) Phase I: Development Grant seeks to create a cohesive interdisciplinary research team to investigate three distinct yet related scientific challenges with the goal of predicting and preventing future pandemics. In the first theme, the project will develop computational and experimental methods that analyze the genomic sequences of viruses that currently infect animals to determine how they may evolve in order to cross species barriers and infect humans in the future. The second theme of the project will be to investigate and develop predictive models to find drugs that can be used to combat a virus identified in the first theme as having the potential to infect humans. A distinguishing characteristic of the approach will be to identify new uses for or to chemically modify drugs that have already been approved for other human diseases. Finally, in the third theme, the investigators will engage with the community at large to develop an understanding of societal and ethical concerns of the research. These efforts can be translated to best practices in future potential crises on how to effectively integrate disciplines and utilize feedback from diverse sources to successfully implement preventative measures. Team-building and peer-mentoring activities will enable participants to think outside the realms of traditional scientific boundaries and instill the importance of interdisciplinary research, thereby providing a pipeline to a workforce in the future that will value and thrive in a team science environment.
- NIH NIAID 1R21AI166633-01A1 "Influence of sleep-like states on mosquito behavior and physiology”
- Clement Vinauger and Josh Benoit (University of Cincinnati)
- $428,939 07/22-06/24
Sleep-like states have been described in multiple insect systems, where these have been linked to immune functionality, stress tolerance, and reproductive aspects, but little is known about sleep-like states in mosquitoes. In this study, we will characterize this overlooked aspect of mosquito biology through combined behavioral and physiological studies, and follow this with sleep manipulation studies to determine the impact of sleep deprivation on reproduction, host preferences, and viral transmission. Results from this proposed research will be critical in understanding how periods of sleep-like states impact mosquitoes, drastically increasing our understanding of their biology, and lay the groundwork for assessing how sleep changes may alter pathogen transmission and the biology of mosquitoes in their natural environment.
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) An integrated AI based platform for the identification of broad-spectrum host therapeutic targets for hemorrhagic fever virus infections
- PI: Kylene Kehn-Hall, Co-PIs: James Omichinski (University of Montreal), Paul O'Maille (SRI), Andrew Silberfarb (SRI)
- Dates of Award: 07-05-22 – 07-04-24 (Base Period); 07-05-24 – 07-04-27 (Option Years)
- Total Award: Direct: $841,717 (Base Period); $1,871,538 (Option Years), Indirect: $155,974 (Base Period); $376,824 (Option Years)
- Lay Nam Chang Dean's Discovery Fund, College of Science, Virginia Tech "Pioneering new routes for antibiotic developments: Specializing and rationally pairing drugs
- PI Andrew N. Lowell Co-PI: Anne M. Brown
- $38,069 2022 - 2023
- RAISE: IHBEMMathematical Formulations of Human Behavior Change in Epidemic Models
- PI: Navid Ghaffarzadegan Co-PIs: Lauren Childs, Mohammad S Jalali, Ran Xu Senior Personnel: Hazhir Rahmadad, Nick Rutanonchai, Omar Saucedo
- 01/23 - 12/26
- Simons Foundation: Collaboration Grants for Mathematicians
- PI: Omar Saucedo
- 09/22 - 08/27
- The Mevers Lab recently received the NIH MIRA to leverage the microbiome of marine snail egg masses for the development of antimicrobial and immune modulating small molecules.
- Rana Ashkar and colleagues from U. Arizona and the NIH were invited to submit a Phase I proposal to the W. M. Keck Foundation for the development of artificial cell Technology with molecularly tunable functionality.
- Daniel Capelluto and Rana Ashkar received the Dean's Discovery Fund award to investigate the effect of Phafin on cell membrane reshaping.
|
|
Congratulations to the following CeZAP affiliated faculty for winning seed funding from the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ITACS) READ MORE>>
- Global Change and Wildlife Pathogen Spillover. Luis Escobar, an assistant professor of fish and wildlife conservation, with Ed Fox, a professor of computer science; Roger Ramirez-Barrios, a professor of parasitology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine; and Andres Velasco-Villa of the Centers for Disease Control.
To begin to tackle pressing questions about how global change will affect the transmission of zoonotic diseases, the team will study how rabies moves from vampire bats to other animals, investigating the role of climatic, landscape, and biodiversity gradients in geographic patterns of disease transmission.
- Accelerating Late-Stage Drug Functionalization for RNA Viruses. Anne Brown, an assistant professor in University Libraries and of biochemistry, with Sanket Deshmukh, an assistant professor of chemical engineering; Andrew Lowell, an assistant professor of chemistry; and James Weger, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences and pathobiology.
RNA viruses — including SARS-CoV-2, dengue virus, and chikungunya virus — rank among the top threats to global health, and there are few effective antivirals to treat them. The team will use computational methods to identify molecules that could potentially be modified and repurposed to combat these diseases, and then synthesize and test them in the lab to determine which could lead to effective treatments.
|
|
|
Help us advertise the ID IGEP program and recruit students.
Please consider showing this slide at the end of any upcoming conference presentations and /or in any undergraduate classes you are teaching.
|
|
|
Summer Conference Highlights
|
|
|
Five CeZAP affiliated faculty recently served as Convener's at the American Society for Virology Annual Conference:
- James Weger-Lucarelli - Evolution, Ecology, and Reservoirs
- Andrea Bertke - Emerging Viruses
- Kylene Kehn-Hall - Togaviruses
- Nisha Duggal - Flaviviruses IV
- Lijuan Yuan - Rotaviruses
CeZAP affiliated faculty invited talks:
- Rana Ashkar gave an Invited Lecture at the Neutron and X-ray Summer School, jointly conducted by Argonne National Lab and Oak Ridge National Lab (July 10, 2022)
- Rana Ashkar was invited to talk on "Domain Induced Dynamics in Phase-Separating Lipid Membranes" at the Santa Fe Meeting on Biological Membranes and Membrane Proteins (June 21, 2022).
|
|
|
ID IGEP affiliated student Casey Hensley gave an oral presentation at the ASV conference "mRNA-based rotavirus vaccine candidates are highly immunogenic and confer protection in the gnotobiotic pig model of human rotavirus infection and diarrhea". Casey was awarded the ASV Student Travel Award as well as the ASVCares Grant.
|
|
|
|
ID IGEP affiliated student Matthew Flores attended and presented at 4 different Conferences. Poster presentations were held at ASM Microbe in Washington DC, the Center on Membrane Protein Production and Analysis (COMPPÅ) Symposium in Manhattan, and The Gordon Conference for Microbial Stress Responses. Matthew gave an oral presentation in Prague at the 21st International Conference on Gram Positive Bacilli and was an invited discussion leader at the Gordon Symposium on Microbial Stress responses.
|
|
|
|
Virginia Tech postdoctoral community thrives
Amid the pandemic, the Office of Research and Innovation convened stakeholders from across campus to explore ways to further improve the postdoctoral researcher’s experience and provide more assistance through a combination of building community, mentoring, and professional development.
New leaders of the VTPA were announced this summer. CeZAP affiliated postdocs include:
- Megan Vogt, co-president, postdoc in biomedical science, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
- Alex Cumbie, communications officer, postdoc in entomology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Karthikeyan Chandrasegaran, diversity, equity, and inclusion chair, postdoc in biochemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences READ MORE>>
|
|
|
|
CeZAP affiliated Faculty News and Updates
The Mevers lab recently received the NIH MIRA to leverage the microbiome of marine snail egg masses for the development of antimicrobial and immune modulating small molecules.
|
|
To Foster and Promote a Cohesive and Synergistic Environment for Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research
|
|
|
|
|
|
