Working Group leader: Holly Wichman
Group members: Marty Ytreberg, Craig Miller
Originated: April 2018
Description:
The function of this group is to help early stage investigators write successful grant proposals. Participants attend a meeting of the Admin Team as needed and get feedback on their proposals. More intense work can be arranged for specific proposals.
Working Group leader: Holly Wichman
Group members: LuAnn Scott, Elissa Schwartz, Karen Biggs, Clay Bailes
Originated: March, 2018
Description:
This group supports a collaboration between the Schwartz lab and the Wichman lab to investigate the behavior, biological relevance, and evolution of resistance to a self-inhibitory sequence found in the Microvirid genome.
We are currently working on a manuscript from Karen Biggs’ dissertation work and anticipate submission by the end of the semester. We are also guiding Clay Bailes’ work on this system.
Working Group leader: Aniruddha Belsare
Group members: Craig Miller, JT Van Leuven, Ryan Long, Katherine Lee
Originated: September 2017
Description:
Given the interconnectedness of animal health, environmental health and human health and well-being, it is necessary to investigate the ecological contexts of animal disease systems that have public health, conservation or economic implications. Such host-pathogen systems are highly complex and heterogeneous, and often, our understanding of such systems is fraught with uncertainties. Our main objective is to develop and use analytical, model-based approaches to better understand complex animal disease systems, and translate insights gained into actionable outcomes for effective disease management. One of our current project (Craig Miller, J T Van Leuven & A Belsare) focuses on canine rabies: We are developing a model-based approach that will combine data from field studies (genomic, demographic) to better understand the transmission dynamics of canine rabies virus in dogs in India. The overarching goal is to make a major contribution to reducing rabies caused deaths in India and elsewhere. Another project (with Ryan Long) focuses on big horn sheep pneumonia modeling.
We will submit a NSF-EEID proposal in November 2018. We are preparing a manuscript on demographic assessments of free-ranging dog populations using Mark-resight techniques.
Working Group leader: Tanya Miura
Group members: Paul Rowley, Shunji Li, Angela Crabtree, Sierra Beach, Kevin Hutchinson, Laura Steiner, Jordan Richter, Mark Lee, Lance Fredericks
Originated: August, 2017
Description:
MoVIES is a group designed to bring together the two IMCI-affiliated eukaryotic virology labs at U of I to discuss empirical approaches to test computational predictions of molecular interactions. The principle eukaryotic viruses discussed will be Ebolavirus, RSV, SARS-coronavirus-2, and HIV.
Our goal is to develop a small community of researchers that will meet to discuss technical and scientific problems pertinent to laboratory experimentation in the context of molecular modeling. This group initially focussed on the setup of experimental systems in HIV, Ebolavirus and RSV that are robust and amenable to test computation predictions in line with the goals of the awarded EPSCoR track II grant. With recent funding to work on SARS-CoV-2, we have worked together to get tools and assays working for our experimental questions.
Publications:
Miller CR, Johnson EL, Burke AZ, Martin KP, Miura TA, Wichman HA, Brown CJ, Ytreberg FM (2016) Initiating a watch list for Ebola virus antibody escape mutations. PeerJ 4:e1674.
Working Group leader: Bryn Martin
Group members: Gordon Murdoch, Nathan Schiele, Gabriel Potirniche, Bert Tanner, Martin Mortazavi, Sajid Suriya
Originated: September 2017
Description:
This group is focused on measurement and modeling with respect to TBI. In specific, we are carrying out an INBRE Pilot project research grant project entitled, “Investigating the Impact of Arachnoid Trabeculae on Brain Tissue Stresses in Sports-Related Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)”. This work has involved:
Our goal is to submit an R01 or R21 stemming from this project. We would also like to develop techniques for targeted destruction / tagging of arachnoid trabeculae.
