Program in Zoonotic Virus Infections

The Program in Zoonotic Virus Infections is focused on expanding our understanding of the impact of viruses on health and ecosystems through the research of virus-host interactions that span taxonomic and disciplinary boundaries.

Program Goals:

  • Deepen understanding of the impact of viruses on health and ecosystems through the research of virus-host interactions that span taxonomic and disciplinary boundaries.
  • Perform the innovative research needed to understand the mechanisms of viral emergence, prediction of new emerging viruses, and development of countermeasures for zoonotic threats

Recent Publications

  • Jaeger AS, Crooks CM, Weiler AM, Bliss MI, Rybarczyk S, Richardson A, Einwalter M, Peterson E, Capuano S 3rd, Barkhymer A, Becker JT, Greene JT, Freedman TS, Langlois RA, Friedrich TC, Aliota MT. Primary infection with Zika virus provides one-way heterologous protection against Spondweni virus infection in rhesus macaques. Sci Adv. 2023; 9(26):eadg3444. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg3444
  • Shaw AK, Torstenson M, Craft ME, Binning SA. Gaps in modelling animal migration with evolutionary game theory: infection can favour the loss of migration. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2023;378(1876):20210506. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0506
  • Moore KA, Leighton T, Ostrowsky JT, Anderson CJ, Danila RN, Ulrich AK, Lackritz EM, Mehr AJ, Baric RS, Baylor NW, Gellin BG, Gordon JL, Krammer F, Perlman S, Rees HV, Saville M, Weller CL, Osterholm MT; Coronavirus vaccines R&D roadmap taskforce; A research and development (R&D) roadmap for broadly protective coronavirus vaccines: A pandemic preparedness strategy. Vaccine. 2023;41(13):2101-2112. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.02.032
  • Ramuta MD, Newman CM, Brakefield SF, Stauss MR, Wiseman RW, Kita-Yarbro A, O'Connor EJ, Dahal N, Lim A, Poulsen KP, Safdar N, Marx JA, Accola MA, Rehrauer WM, Zimmer JA, Khubbar M, Beversdorf LJ, Boehm EC, Castañeda D, Rushford C, Gregory DA, Yao JD, Bhattacharyya S, Johnson MC, Aliota MT, Friedrich TC, O'Connor DH, O'Connor SL. SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens are detected in continuous air samples from congregate settings. Nat Commun. 2022; 13(1):4717. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32406-w
  • Raasch LE, Yamamoto K, Newman CM, Rosinski JR, Shepherd PM, Razo E, Crooks CM, Bliss MI, Breitbach ME, Sneed EL, Weiler AM, Zeng X, Noguchi KK, Morgan TK, Fuhler NA, Bohm EK, Alberts AJ, Havlicek SJ, Kabakov S, Mitzey AM, Antony KM, Ausderau KK, Mejia A, Basu P, Simmons HA, Eickhoff JC, Aliota MT, Mohr EL, Friedrich TC, Golos TG, O'Connor DH, Dudley DM. Fetal loss in pregnant rhesus macaques infected with high-dose African-lineage Zika virus. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022;16(8):e0010623. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010623
  • Dudley DM, Koenig MR, Stewart LM, Semler MR, Newman CM, Shepherd PM, Yamamoto K, Breitbach ME, Schotzko M, Kohn S, Antony KM, Qiu H, Tunga P, Anderson DM, Guo W, Dennis M, Singh T, Rybarczyk S, Weiler AM, Razo E, Mitzey A, Zeng X, Eickhoff JC, Mohr EL, Simmons HA, Fritsch MK, Mejia A, Aliota MT, Friedrich TC, Golos TG, Kodihalli S, Permar SR, O'Connor DH. Human immune globulin treatment controls Zika viremia in pregnant rhesus macaques. PLoS One. 2022 ;17(7):e0266664. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266664
  • Peinado SA, Aliota MT, Blitvich BJ, Bartholomay LC. Biology and transmission dynamics of aedes flavivirus. J Med Entomol. 2022;59(2):659-666. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjab197
  • Kozakiewicz CP, Burridge CP, Lee JS, Kraberger SJ, Fountain-Jones NM, Fisher RN, Lyren LM, Jennings MK, Riley SPD, Serieys LEK, Craft ME, Funk WC, Crooks KR, VandeWoude S, Carver S. Habitat connectivity and host relatedness influence virus spread across an urbanising landscape in a fragmentation-sensitive carnivore. Virus Evol. 2022;9(1):veac122. doi: 10.1093/ve/veac122
  • Makau DN, Lycett S, Michalska-Smith M, Paploski IAD, Cheeran MC, Craft ME, Kao RR, Schroeder DC, Doeschl-Wilson A, VanderWaal K. Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of multi-strain RNA viruses. Nat Ecol Evol. 2022;6(10):1414-1422. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01860-6
  • Manlove K, Wilber M, White L, Bastille-Rousseau G, Yang A, Gilbertson MLJ, Craft ME, Cross PC, Wittemyer G, Pepin KM. Defining an epidemiological landscape that connects movement ecology to pathogen transmission and pace-of-life. Ecol Lett. 2022;25(8):1760-1782. doi: 10.1111/ele.14032
  • van den Berg NI, Machado D, Santos S, Rocha I, Chacón J, Harcombe W, Mitri S, Patil KR. Ecological modelling approaches for predicting emergent properties in microbial communities. Nat Ecol Evol. 2022;6(7):855-865. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01746-7
  • Meek MH, Beever EA, Barbosa S, Fitzpatrick SW, Fletcher NK, Mittan-Moreau CS, Reid BN, Campbell-Staton SC, Green NF, Hellmann JJ. Understanding local adaptation to prepare populations for climate change. BioScience. 2022; 73(1):36–47. doi:10.1093/biosci/biac101
  • Roach SN, Fiege JK, Shepherd FK, Wiggen TD, Hunter RC, Langlois RA. Respiratory influenza virus infection causes dynamic tuft cell and innate lymphoid cell changes in the small intestine. J Virol. 2022;96(9):e0035222. doi: 10.1128/jvi.00352-22
  • Kenney AD, Aron SL, Gilbert C, Kumar N, Chen P, Eddy A, Zhang L, Zani A, Vargas-Maldonado N, Speaks S, Kawahara J, Denz PJ, Dorn L, Accornero F, Ma J, Zhu H, Rajaram MVS, Cai C, Langlois RA, Yount JS. Influenza virus replication in cardiomyocytes drives heart dysfunction and fibrosis. Sci Adv. 2022;8(19):eabm5371. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm5371
  • Shen SS, Nanda H, Aliferis C, Langlois RA. Characterization of influenza A virus induced transposons reveals a subgroup of transposons likely possessing the regulatory role as eRNAs. Sci Rep. 2022;12(1):2188. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06196-6
  • Fiege JK, Langlois RA. Embracing the heterogeneity of natural viruses in mouse studies. J Gen Virol. 2022;103(6):001758. doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001758
  • Fay EJ, Balla KM, Roach SN, Shepherd FK, Putri DS, Wiggen TD, Goldstein SA, Pierson MJ, Ferris MT, Thefaine CE, Tucker A, Salnikov M, Cortez V, Compton SR, Kotenko SV, Hunter RC, Masopust D, Elde NC, Langlois RA. Natural rodent model of viral transmission reveals biological features of virus population dynamics. J Exp Med. 2022;219(2):e20211220. doi: 10.1084/jem.20211220
  • Gilbertson MLJ, Fountain-Jones NM, Malmberg JL, Gagne RB, Lee JS, Kraberger S, Kechejian S, Petch R, Chiu ES, Onorato D, Cunningham MW, Crooks KR, Funk WC, Carver S, VandeWoude S, VanderWaal K, Craft ME. Apathogenic proxies for transmission dynamics of a fatal virus. Front Vet Sci. 2022;9:940007. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.940007
  • Zhang W, Shi K, Geng Q, Ye G, Aihara H, Li F. Structural basis for mouse receptor recognition by SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022;119(44):e2206509119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2206509119
  • Michalska-Smith M, VanderWaal K, Craft ME. Asymmetric host movement reshapes local disease dynamics in metapopulations. Sci Rep. 2022;12(1):9365. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-12774-5
  • Omondi GP, Obanda V, VanderWaal K, Deen J, Travis DA. Animal movement in a pastoralist population in the Maasai Mara Ecosystem in Kenya and implications for pathogen spread and control. Prev Vet Med. 2021;188:105259. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2021.105259
  • Fiege JK, Block KE, Pierson MJ, Nanda H, Shepherd FK, Mickelson CK, Stolley JM, Matchett WE, Wijeyesinghe S, Meyerholz DK, Vezys V, Shen SS, Hamilton SE, Masopust D, Langlois RA. Mice with diverse microbial exposure histories as a model for preclinical vaccine testing. Cell Host Microbe. 2021;29(12):1815-1827.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2021.10.001
  • Chacón JM, Hammarlund SP, Martinson JNV, Smith Jr. LB, Harcombe WR. The ecology and evolution of model microbial mutualisms. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 2021; 52(1): 363-384. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-012121-091753

Zoonotic Virus Infections