Program in Molecular Surveillance

The Program in Molecular Surveillance aims to design systems for innovative and adaptive molecular surveillance to rapidly sequence pathogens and respond to and communicate with public health officials and medical providers about pandemic conditions in the community.

Program Goals:

  • Build a system for innovative and adaptive molecular surveillance that can develop new assays, rapidly sequence pathogens and respond to the needs of public health officials and medical providers
  • Enable the detection of emergent pathogens, prediction of spikes, and provide guidance for medical and pharmacological therapeutic interventions

Recent Publications

  • Faul JD, Kim JK, Levine ME, Thyagarajan B, Weir DR, Crimmins EM. Epigenetic-based age acceleration in a representative sample of older Americans: Associations with aging-related morbidity and mortality. PNAS 2023;120(9):e2215840120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2215840120
  • Knipping F, Newby GA, Eide CR, McElroy AN, Nielsen SC, Smith K, Fang Y, Cornu TI, Costa C, Gutierrez-Guerrero A, Bingea SP, Feser CJ, Steinbeck B, Hippen KL, Blazar BR, McCaffrey A, Mussolino C, Verhoeyen E, Tolar J, Liu DR, Osborn MJ. Disruption of HIV-1 co-receptors CCR5 and CXCR4 in primary human T cells and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells using base editing. Mol Ther. 2022;30(1):130-144. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.10.026
  • Liu Y, Zhan L, Shen JW, Baro B, Alemany A, Sackrison J, Mitjà O, Bischof JC. fM-aM Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen by advanced lateral flow immunoassay based on gold nanospheres. ACS Appl Nano Mater. 2021;4(12):13826-13837. doi: 10.1021/acsanm.1c03217
  • Liu Y, Zhan L, Wang Y, Kangas J, Larkin D, Boulware DR, Bischof JC. Improved influenza diagnostics through thermal contrast amplification. Diagnostics 2021;11(3):462. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11030462
  • Liu Y, Zhan L, Qin Z, Sackrison J, Bischof JC. Ultrasensitive and highly specific lateral flow assays for point-of-care diagnosis. ACS Nano. 2021;15(3):3593-3611. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c10035
  • Osborn MJ, Bhardwaj A, Bingea SP, Knipping F, Feser CJ, Lees CJ, Collins DP, Steer CJ, Blazar BR, Tolar J. CRISPR/Cas9-Based lateral flow and fluorescence diagnostics. Bioengineering 2021;8(2):23. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering8020023
  • Melvin RG, Hendrickson EN, Chaudhry N, Georgewill O, Freese R, Schacker TW, Simmons GE Jr. A novel wastewater-based epidemiology indexing method predicts SARS-CoV-2 disease prevalence across treatment facilities in metropolitan and regional populations. Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):21368. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-00853-y

SARS-CoV-Surveillance Study Dashboard

This dashboard illustrates SARS-CoV2 virus levels in wastewater compared to PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in seven regions.