Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics
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- News
- CIDD hosts EEID meeting 2013 "This was quite possibly the best meeting I have ever attended"
- Participate in CIDD study: Tracking Influenza Spread Using Social Media The Penn State community is invited to participate in a new study that tracks the spread of influenza using social media.
- Job Opportunities
- Computational Scientist / Programmer / Bioinformatics Specialist The research laboratory of Dr. Moriah Szpara seeks applicants for a scientific programmer, to join a group focused on the genomic variation of human alpha herpes viruses, and their impact on human health (http://www.cidd.psu.edu/people/mls164). The successful candidate will interface with bioinformatics and computational groups within the Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences and the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. The candidate will engage in research on genetic variation among virus strains (genome resequencing), as well as analyzing how host cells respond to infection (transcriptomics/RNAseq). Specific duties include implementing existing code for de novo genome assembly, annotation and cross-comparison of virus strains, and analyzing RNAseq data to discern host and pathogen expression patterns. For the full job ad, please see the PSU jobs website (http://psu.jobs/Search/Opportunities.html), job number 39638. You can apply there and/or email moriah@psu.edu. — Posted May 31, 2013
- 2 postdoctoral data science positions Two postdoctoral data science positions (CIDD - Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Penn State University) are available immediately with Dr. Marcel Salathé’s group at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) at The Pennsylvania State University. — Posted Jan 22, 2013
- Highlights from recent research
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Generating super-shedders: co-infection increases bacterial load and egg production of a gastrointestinal helminth
Research by CIDD scientists experimentally demonstrates that coinfection may create ‘super-shedders’ that contribute disproportionately to pathogen transmission. Additionally, their work highlights how bioluminescent tagging can open a window into the within-host ecology of bacteria.
- Read longer synopsis
- Read paper on journal website : Generating super-shedders: co-infection increases bacterial load and egg production of a gastrointestinal helminth , Journal of The Royal Society Interface (2013)
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Parasite manipulation without the parasite
Using neurophysiological and behavioral measurements of malaria-infected vs. -uninfected mosquitoes, a group of Penn State researchers present evidence that immune challenges, rather than Plasmodium parasites per se, can alter feeding behaviors in ways that can promote transmission.
- Read longer synopsis
- Read paper on journal website : “Manipulation” without the parasite: altered feeding behavior of mosquitoes is not dependent on infection with malaria parasites, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2013)
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Implications of temperature variation for malaria parasite development across Africa
Temperature is known to be an important factor in determining the extent of malaria transmission. Recent work involving a number of CIDD researchers demonstrates that both the spatial and temporal scales of temperature measurements can be critical in attempting to predict disease prevalence and distribution.
- Read longer synopsis
- Read paper on journal website : Implications of temperature variation for malaria parasite development across Africa, Scientific Reports (2013)
- Yellowstone Wolf: Project Citizen Science Ecology and CIDD graduate student Emily Almberg is working to harness public interest in Yellowstone's wolves with a citizen science website aimed at improving research and public outreach.
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Scientists make strides toward restoring bighorn sheep in the American West
An interdisciplinary research team with several scientists from the Huck Institutes has made key discoveries elucidating dynamics of pneumonia in bighorn sheep as mortality from the disease continues to limit recovery of the once nearly extirpated bighorn population in the western United States.
