Novel Virus Discovery: From Model Organisms to Human Disease

Date/Time: 18 July 2013, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Speaker: David Wang, Ph.D.
Speaker Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Venue: John A. Burns School of Medicine, Kaka’ako, MEB (Room 314)

For more info: Cori Watanabe (808) 692-1654
Description: The known viruses largely studied by the scientific
community constitute only a small fraction of the entire viral
world. Using genomic approaches, such as Next Generation sequencing
with associated customized bioinformatics applications, we have
discovered many novel viruses in samples ranging from clinical
specimens from unexplained human disease to model organisms. Our
human studies have focused primarily on acute respiratory infections
and diarrhea, two diseases in which the etiologies of 30-40% of all
cases are unknown. Multiple novel viruses have been identified in
these specimens, and current efforts are aimed at defining the
relevance of these viruses to disease as well as novel aspects of
fundamental virology. Most recently, we have also discovered the
first virus capable of infecting the model organism C. elegans, and
we are working actively to exploit this system to better understand
fundamental aspects of virus-host interactions.