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CeZAP Monthly Thematic Area socials
Come gather with the CeZAP community at our monthly Thematic Area Socials. A different thematic area will be highlighted each month, but the socials are open to the entire CeZAP community. These socials will be an informal gathering for the CeZAP community, but also provide an opportunity for faculty, post-docs and/or students to give 3-5 minute talks about their research (within the “theme of the month”). These talks can serve to strengthen communication skills and/or facilitate collaborations. The day and time of the socials will rotate each month to accommodate the majority of people’s schedules. Lunch or snacks will be provided.
 
March CeZAP Thematic Social
"Computational Biology & Disease Modeling"
March 27, 2023
1:00 - 2:30 
Fralin Hall Auditorium & Lobby
Lunch will be provided
Register HERE

Contact Stanca Ciupe <stanca@vt.edu>, Leah Johnson <leah815@vt.edu> or Sarah Gouger <sgouger@vt.edu> for more information. Check out our website for more information on the Thematic Research Areas HERE
CeZAP 2023 Interdisciplinary Team-building Pilot Grant
CeZAP announces Request for Application (RFP) for the 2023 Interdisciplinary team-building pilot grant. The 2023 CeZAP Pilot Grant program is once again supported financially by Fralin Life Sciences Institute and the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, and we appreciate their continuous support!

The deadline for applications is April 3, 2023
2023 CeZAP Interdisciplinary Team-building Pilot Grant RFP
Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series in Infectious Diseases
Spring 2023 Seminar Schedule
Thursdays at 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Fralin Hall Auditorium
More information is available on the website HERE
 
January 19, 2023: 
ID IGEP Presentations: Jason Pough, Hannah Ivester, Jonathan Joyce
January 26, 2023:
Kristy Murray, D.V.M., Ph.D. | BCMP Professor, Baylor College of Medicine & Sarah Gunter Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine “Implementing and expanding acute febrile illness surveillance for emerging pathogens in LMIC countries during a pandemic”
February 2, 2023:
Andres Velasco-Villa, Ph.D. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Molecular typing of rabies virus: a tool that has enhanced the elimination of the dog rabies cycle across Latin America”
February 9, 2023:
Nadia Romero-Gallardo, DVM, CDC One Health Office “One World-One Health”
February 16, 2023:
Rachel Silverman, Ph.D., ScM, Research Scientist, VMCVM "Using routinely collected public health data for epidemiologic research during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic"
February 23, 2023: 
Shawna McCallin, Ph.D. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne “Phage Therapy: Test tube to new treatments” 
March 2, 2023:
Kylene Kehn-Hall, MS, Ph.D., Professor, VMCVM "Discovery of novel protein: protein interactions for emerging viral countermeasure development" 
March 16, 2023:
David Schmale, Ph.D., SPES, CALS “Transport of microbes at interfaces”
March 23, 2023:
Zhaomin Yang, Ph.D., Professor, COS “Bacterial type IV pilus as a motility apparatus and anti-virulence target”
March 30, 2023:
Taylor Earley, Ph.D., Leidos Biomedical Research Inc.
April 6, 2023:
Gregory Glass, Ph.D., Professor, University of Florida
April 13, 2023: 
Jason Crawford, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemistry and Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University “Metabolism at the Host-microbe Interface”
April 20, 2023:
Jean Whichard, Ph.D, CDC “Antimicrobial Resistance in Foodborne and Zoonotic Bacteria in the U.S., An Introduction to the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System”
April 27, 2023:
Jonatas Abrahao, Ph.D., Professor Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil  
Linsey Marr named to National Academy of Engineering

Linsey Marr, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering as one of 106 new members for 2023.

Marr is being honored for advancing fundamental knowledge of transport, removal, and mitigation of airborne pathogenic viruses.  

“I view National Academy members as true leaders in the field, so to join this group is a real honor,” said Marr. “This recognition is a reminder of how grateful I am for my wonderful colleagues and students.”

While Marr’s research on airborne virus transmission began in 2009, her work became the center of attention in 2020 with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the global health crisis, the two most urgent questions were “How is the coronavirus transmitted?” and “What can we do to protect ourselves?” Marr was one of about a dozen people in the world prepared to answer these questions correctly. READ MORE>>
Anne M. Brown receives NSF CAREER award to use computational modeling to study amyloid interactions

Millions of people worldwide have incurable Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases caused by fibrous deposits called amyloids. Amyloids attach themselves to organs such as the brain, liver, lungs, or heart or spread throughout the body, which can lead to these diseases, generally called amyloidosis. Treatments for these diseases include targeted therapies, chemotherapy, and even organ transplants. However, much is unknown about amyloids on the molecular level. 

Anne Brown, University Libraries’ assistant professor, science informatics consultant and health analytics coordinator, and affiliate of the Department of Biochemistry, received a five-year, $800,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award to use her molecular dynamics simulation expertise to shed more light on the differences between amyloids that harm and those that don’t. READ MORE>>
Luis Escobar receives NSF CAREER award to study disease transmission among wildlife and across geographic scales

The emergence of COVID-19 and the negative impacts that wildlife-to-human disease transmission have had on human societies has been the central global science story of recent years. A strong second contender is the looming existential risks presented by our steadily warming planet.

Now, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will give Assistant Professor Luis Escobar of the College of Natural Resources and Environment the chance to consider both research dimensions while exploring disease transmission across two continents.

“We are using hantavirus as our biological model,” said Escobar, who teaches in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. “The goal is to understand how climate change is going to influence the spillover transmission of viruses, both between wildlife species and to human populations.” READ MORE>>
ID IGEP Recruiting Event Poster Session
March 17, 2023
2:00 - 3:30 pm ILSB Lobby

On Friday, March 17 graduate student recruits accepted into the ID IGEP will be visiting our campus.  Please help us to convince them to accept our offer of admission. Current graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members interested in presenting a research poster during a session with the recruits that will be held 2pm in ILSB lobby should notify Sarah Gouger (sgouger@vt.edu) no later than March 10. We hope that everyone will network with our recruits and that our students in particular will talk with them about your experiences at VT and with ID IGEP.

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. 
ID IGEP Powerpoint Slide - Click here to download
Recent Publications by CeZAP Affiliated Faculty
Preterm birth is associated with xenobiotics and predicted by the vaginal metabolome Kindschuh WF, Baldini F, Liu MC, Liao J, Meydan Y, Lee HH, Heinken H, Thiele I, Thaiss CA, Levy M, Korem T. Nature Microbiology DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01293-8

Restriction endonuclease cleavage of phage DNA enables resuscitation from CAS13-induced bacterial dormancy Williams MC, Reker AE, Margolis SR, Liao J, Wiedmann M, Rojas ER, Meeske AJ. Nature Microbiology DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01318-2

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus E1 protein interacts with PDIA6 and PDI inhibition reduces alphavirus production Panny L, Akrhymuk I, Bracci N, Woodson C, Flor R, Zhou W, Narayanan A, Campbell C, Kehn-Hall K. Antiviral Res. DOI:10.1016/j.antiviral.2023.10556

A hepatitis B virus core antigen-based virus-like particle vaccine expressing SARS-CoV-2 B and T cell epitopes induces epitope-specific humoral and cell-mediated immune responses but confers limited protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Hassebroek AM, Sooryanarain H, Lynn Heffron C, Hawks SA, LeRoith T, Cecere TE, Stone WB, Walter D, Mahsoub HM, Wang B, Tian D, Ivester HM, Allen IC, Auguste AJ, Duggal NK, Zhang C, Meng XJ. J Med Virol. DOI: 10.1002/jmv.28503.

Ribavirin Treatment Failure-Associated Mutation, Y1320H, in the RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase of Genotype 3 Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) Enhances Virus Replication in a Rabbit HEV Infection Model. Wang B, Mahsoub HM, Li W, Heffron CL, Tian D, Hassebroek AM, LeRoith T,Meng XJ.  mBio DOI: 10.1128/mbio.03372-22

Maternal antibody repertoire restriction modulates the development of lupus-like disease in BXSB offspring. Zhu J, Naughton S, Bowman N, LeRoith T, Luo X, Leeth C. Int Immunol DOI: 10.1093/intimm/dxac04
Revealing the complexity of vampire bat rabies "spillover transmission Escobar LE, Velasco-Villa A, Satheshkumar PS, Nakazawa Y, Van de Vuurst P. Infect Dis Poverty 
DOI: 10.1186/s40249-023-01062-7

Coursing hyenas and stalking lions: The potential for inter- and intraspecific interactions Barker NA, Joubert FG, Kasaona M, Shatumbu G, Stowbunenko V, Alexander KA, Slotow R, Getz, WM. PLOS One 
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265054

Dalbavancin as sequential therapy for infective endocarditis due to Gram-positive organizms: A review Fazili T, Bansel E, Garnder D, Gomes M, Stornelli N. Int J Antimicrob Agents 
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2023.106749

Phylogenetic characterization of Orthobunyaviruses isolated from Trinidad shows evidence of natural reassortment Foster JE, Lopez K, Eastwood G, Guzman H, Carrington CVF, Tesh RB, Auguste AJ. Virus Genes DOI: 10.1007/s11262-023-01973-5

Neuromodulation and differential learning across mosquito species Wolff GH, Lahondere C, Vinauger C, Rylance E, Riffell JA. Proc Biol Sci DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2118

A novel synthetic sRNA promoting protein overexpression in cell-free systems Tanniche I, Nazem-Bokaee H, Scheer DM, Schlemmer S, Senger RS. Biotechnol Prog DOI: 10.1002/btpr.3324

Super-enhanced evaporation of droplets from porous coatings Hosseini M, Rodriguez A, Ducker WA. J Colloid Interface Sci DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.065

A time evolving online social network generation algorithm. Shirzadian P, Antony B, Gattani AG, Tasnina N, Heath LS. Sci Rep 
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29443-w

In the wind: Invasive species travel along predictable atmospheric pathways.Pretorius I, Schou WC, Richardson B, Ross SD, Withers TM, Schmale DG 3rd, Strand TM.Ecol Appl DOI: 10.1002/eap.2806
Recent Grants by CeZAP Affiliated Faculty
  • DoD: Lyme Diagnostics $1.3 Million
    • PI: Brandon Jutras
  • Destination 2.0 - Pandemic Prediction & Prevention
    • PI: T.M. Murali
Team members: Debswapna Bhattacharya, Department of Computer Science; Sanket Deshmukh, Department of Chemical Engineering; Luis Escobar, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation; Julie Gerdes, Department of English; Kathy Hosig, Department of Population Health Sciences; Anuj Karpatne, Department of Computer Science; Lisa M. Lee, Department of Population Health Sciences; X.J. Meng, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology; Padma Rajagopalan, Department of Chemical Engineering; Patricia Raun, School of Performing Arts; Webster Santos, Department of Chemistry; Paul Skolnik, VTCSOM; James Weger-Lucarelli, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology  READ MORE>
  • NSF BeeHive: A Cross-Problem Benchmarking Framework for Network Biology $1.5 Million
    • PI: T.M. Murali
    • Co-PIs: Anthony Gitter, University of Wisconsin at Madison and Anna Ritz, Reed College
Many important aspects of biology involve relationships between the molecules within cells. For example, a medicine may turn off a diseased protein, or protein may activate an important gene. These individual relationships organize into larger biological networks. Many computational methods aim to predict these types of network relationships and which relationships control essential biological processes. This project will establish a computational framework called BeeHive to support running and comparing modern computational tools for studying biological networks. BeeHive will make it considerably easier to analyze biological data with these methods and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. The framework will automatically update a website that tests top methods on a variety of biological use cases, which will provide important benchmarking and assessments for the network biology scientific community. The project will showcase BeeHive with biological applications in gene regulation, protein signaling, and chemical target networks. BeeHive will be used in undergraduate research experiences through a Summer Research Institute across the three project sites.
Congratulations to the following CeZAP affiliated faculty recipients of the ICTAS Engineering Faculty Organization-Opportunity seed grants READ MORE>>
Machine-Learning-enabled Source Attribution of Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium Using Genomic Variants. 
  • Jingqiu Liao, Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
A Smartphone-assisted Digital CRISPR (SPA-dCRISPER) Device for the Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Emerging Viruses.
  • Juhong Chen, Department of Biological Systems Engineering
A Unified, Natural, and Computationally Efficient Genome-based Classification System for All Microbes. 
  • Lenwood Heath, Department of Computer Science.
.Genetically Engineered Living Biosensors Empowered by Nanophotonics for Continuous and Selective Monitoring of Environmental Toxins. 
  • Anna Duraj-Thatte, Department of Biological Systems Engineering. 

Roger Ramirez-Barrios has been named the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association’s Mentor of the Year for 2023. The award has been offered since 2006 to recognize excellence in mentorship. 

Ramirez-Barrios received this award as he always makes students a priority and sees mentorship as part of his job, not an extra obligation.  READ MORE>>
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) has named Paul R. Skolnik its chair of the Department of Basic Science Education (DBSE). Skolnik will provide leadership, mentoring, and strategy development for the department and faculty representing a spectrum of research and medical science specialties, including further development of a shared vision focused on continuing excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, and service. READ MORE>>

Lisa M. Lee provides perspective on the FDA plan suggesting that individuals receive a single COVID-19 shot each year (just like flu shots). The vaccines would be bivalent, meaning they are made using components from two different strains of the virus, thus offering more protection against variants. READ MORE>>
Lauren Childs was recently awarded the Ruth I Michler Memorial Prize from the Association for Women in Mathematics for 2023-24. READ MORE>>

To Foster and Promote a Cohesive and Synergistic Environment for Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research






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