Synopses
A non-exhaustive list of selected research papers by CIDD researchers.
To access the publication list of a particular person, go to that person's page in the People section.
Daily temperature fluctuations affect malaria transmission potential
Most climate-based malaria transmission models utilize mean monthly temperatures to explore the impact of climate on infection dynamics. According to CIDD researchers, this leads to an overestimation of malaria transmission in higher temperature areas and underestimation of transmission in lower temperature areas. Their studies show that daily temperature fluctuations greatly influence the incubation period of parasites in their vector, which alters malaria transmission potential.
Birth rates and vaccination affect the timing of rotavirus epidemics
Experts have been at a loss to explain the pattern of rotavirus epidemics in the U.S, in which seasonal activity begins in the southwest and ends in the northeast each year. Using epidemiological modeling, CIDD researchers have revealed that geographic differences in birth rate explain this apparent traveling wave. Their model also clarifies the impacts of vaccination and herd immunity.
Targeted insecticides could reduce malaria
Using insecticides indiscriminately can cause mosquitoes to built up a resistance to the insecticides creating a never ending race to engineer new insecticides. By changing the approach and creating insecticides that only target older mosquitoes the pressure to reproduce is reduced and the chances of building a resistance are greatly reduced.
Climate change and fungal disease in amphibians
Many amphibian extinctions in recent decades were apparently caused by a fungal disease. But what underlies increased disease incidence? Has climate change made it easier for the fungus to spread? Or has the fungus been introduced in more places independently of climate change? A new data analysis shows that neither theory explains observed amphibian population declines well. Instead, a mix of factors may be responsible
Tropical reservoir for human influenza?
An analysis of more than 1300 complete influenza genomes shows different evolutionary patterns for two important viral subtypes (A/H1N1 and A/H3N2). Changes in diversity through time in northern and southern hemispheres suggest that for each of these subtypes, new strains arise from a reservoir in the tropics and move out to temperate regions.
Influenza A virus: history of reassortment
Genetic sequences collected between 1918 and 2005 indicate that reassortment happens frequently in the evolutionary history of the Influenza A virus, including in the emergence of epidemic viruses.
Predicting the unpredictable: measles outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa
Strong seasonal variations in transmission mean it is difficult to predict the size of measles epidemics in Niger from year to year. The large variability in annual outbreaks has implications for efforts to control outbreaks by vaccination.
Bacterial wilt and herbivory
Squash plants that resisted herbivory by beetles were also more resistant to a bacterial pathogen vectored by the beetles. This confounds some common assumptions about tradeoffs between resistance and tolerance to herbivory.
How whooping cough evades the immune system to infect vaccinated hosts
Dynamic modeling provides insights into virulence, pathogenesis and host adaptation.
Why West Nile virus kills so many crows
West Nile virus infects many animals, including humans. The strain currently circulating in North America is particularly deadly to crows. A single positively selected mutation appears to be responsible for turning the virus from a relatively mild pathogen into one that is lethal to crows.
New metagenomic analysis method could aid pathogen ID
The MEGAN computer program can aid taxonomic exploration of large genomic datasets. Unlike some other analysis methods, it can potentially distinguish between sequences from closely-related species or strains, such as pathogenic and non-pathogenic variants.
Recombination helps virus jump species?
Evidence that recombination may help viruses survive in novel environments, such as a new host species, from studies where domestic cats became infected with lentiviruses isolated from wild cougars.
How yellow fever got to the Americas
Evolutionary analysis supports an "out of Africa" theory for the origin of South American yellow fever viral strains. The timing of the split between African and South American viral isolates suggests that the disease may have been brought to the Americas by the slave trade.
Rapid rise of antiviral resistance in influenza not caused by drug selection pressure
Over recent years, human influenza viruses resistant to antiviral drugs (adamantanes) have spread to high frequency worldwide. An analysis of influenza genomes suggests that this surge in resistance has not occurred in response to selection imposed by antiviral drugs. Rather, the mutation that confers resistance appears to be associated with fitness-enhancing changes elsewhere in the genome.
Leeches may transmit pathogen to amphibians
Leeches are well-known to transmit blood-borne pathogens but this is the first report of them transmitting an intramuscular infection (a protist which causes swellings and ulcerations) in amphibians.
Pollen that can increase the risk of fungal infection
A mutation in maize pollen causes pollen tubes to grow more slowly, and so increases the risk of sexually transmitted fungal pathogens.
Influenza evolution and epidemic dynamics
Phylodynamics: mathematical model of influenza epidemics shows how viral evolutionary patterns can account for observed epidemic patterns of influenza, and vice versa.
Influenza evolution: the importance of chance processes
Extensive within-season genetic diversity in influenza A H3N2 viruses in New York State appears to arise from successive introduction of new variants from elsewhere; most viruses circulating in a given season are introduced from elsewhere.
Social contact structure affects vaccination effectiveness
Modeling, using newly-developed methods, shows that the more heterogeneous a network's contact structure, the greater the disease control afforded by immunizing highly-connected individuals.
Interferon limits spatial spread of viral infections
One of the first models of within-host spatial interactions between viruses and cytokines.
Human migrations not traceable by JC Virus after all
JC Virus has been used as a genetic marker to infer early human migration patterns. But new analyses show that it may be an unreliable indicator: this ubiquitous virus evolves much faster than previously thought and its evolutionary trees do not reflect known patterns of human population divergence.
Parasites and climate change
A long-term study of worms in rabbits, combined with mathematical modeling, examines how host-parasite dynamics change with increased environmental temperature.
Considerations for measles control in Africa
New models based on developing country data show that vaccination could limit measles epidemics within cities even once an epidemic has taken off.
Shorter TB treatment could cut deaths
Cutting treatment duration to two months might prevent roughly a fifth of new TB cases and a quarter of all deaths in South East Asia between 2012 and 2030.
Avian influenza virus evolves rapidly in wild birds
Contrary to previous studies, research suggests that avian influenza A viruses in wild aquatic birds evolve at rates similar to those seen in influenza A in mammals and domestic poultry.
Removing deer can increase risk of tick-borne disease
Since adult female ticks often feed on deer, removal of deer has been advocated as a means of controlling tick-borne disease. But research shows that removing deer might actually increase disease risk.
Variable temperatures increase amphibian disease risk
Field evidence suggests that amphibians' ability to fight infections depends strongly on environmental temperature.
Virus confers competitive advantage on infected bacteria
Experimental data and mathematical modeling of dynamics of competition between phage-free and phage-containing Bordetella bacteria.
Big cat eats human… and acquires new pathogen?
Many human stomachs contain Helicobacter bacteria. Lions, tigers and cheetahs host a closely-related species of Helicobacter. Did one Helicobacter species evolve from the other? It seems so.
Why biological diversity may be good for your health
A review paper written at a CIDD workshop discusses how human impacts on biodiversity can increase the prevalence of some important diseases.
Pathogens may influence hibernation patterns
Mathematical modeling suggests that temporary arousals from torpor may have evolved to help mammals control pathogens.
Parasites and ecosystem health
A review concludes that a healthy ecosystem is typically rich in parasites.
Pathogens worm their way in
The advantages and disadvantages to pathogens of being vectored by worms, compared with being directly transmitted.
Rapid evolution in a DNA virus
Human B19 erythrovirus demonstrates evolutionary rates more characteristic of RNA viruses.
Commuting patterns and influenza epidemics
Mathematical models of annual influenza epidemics across the United States suggest that patterns of epidemic spread are affected by adults traveling to and from work.
Controlling foot-and-mouth disease by vaccination
A theoretical study indicates that certain reactive vaccination strategies may be able to halt foot-and-mouth spread more effectively than culling alone.
Hyperparasitic dengue viruses?
Field evidence that an evolutionary lineage of defective viruses can be transmitted by "parasitizing" functional proteins from other dengue viruses coinfecting the same cell.
Dengue viral diversity affected by prevalence of "competing" serotypes?
Relative abundance of dengue serotypes in Thailand fluctuates through time, as does genetic diversity within each serotype.
How whooping cough evades the immune system to infect vaccinated hosts
Findings suggest that vaccination against whooping cough needs to generate a long-lasting antibody response to pertussis toxin.
Dengue evolution: viral diversity in the Americas
Different patterns of spread and evolution in different types of dengue.
Testosterone increases parasite intensities in red grouse
Experiments using anthelminthic drugs and testosterone implants show that males with higher testosterone levels become infected with more parasites.
Better estimates of R0, a critical disease dynamics parameter
A new method for estimating the basic reproductive ratio from incidence data, and for correcting for measurement-induced biases.
Effects of parasite communities on willow ptarmigan population dynamics
Evidence that parasites interact to affect host population dynamics, and that external factors affect infection in general.
Mechanisms underlying immunity to whooping cough
Experiments in mice show that both humoral and cellular immune responses are important.
Evolution and emergence of Bordetella in humans
Evidence that immune-mediated competition, high transmission rates and large host population size favored independent evolution of two virulent subspecies from a common progenitor.
Whole-genome analysis sheds light on influenza virus evolution
Evidence for multiple reassortment events in H3N2 influenza A viruses infecting humans.
