So, a lot has been happening in the Sistrom lab in the last couple of months –
Most exciting is that my graduate student made a documentary! Check it out!
New paper 1: Genetic diversity in RNA virus populations drives adaptation to spatially mixed host environments
We just had a super exciting paper accepted too! stay tuned for an update on it.
We have a new paper out in the Journal Evolutionary Applications. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eva.12338/abstract
Abstract: The trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (Tbg) is a cause of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) endemic to many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is almost invariably fatal if untreated and there is no vaccine, which makes monitoring and managing drug resistance highly relevant. A recent study of HAT cases from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported a high incidence of relapses in patients treated with melarsoprol. Of the 19 Tbg strains isolated from patients enrolled in this study, four pairs were obtained from the same patient before treatment and after relapse. We used whole genome sequencing to investigate whether these patients were infected with a new strain, or if the original strain had regrown to pathogenic levels. Clustering analysis of 5,938 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) supports the hypothesis of regrowth of the original strain, as we found that strains isolated before and after treatment from the same patient were more similar to each other than to other isolates. We also identified 23 novel genes that could affect melarsoprol sensitivity, representing a promising new set of targets for future functional studies. This work exemplifies the utility of using evolutionary approaches to provide novel insights and tools for disease control.
UC Merced graduate admissions are open, and I am recruiting. I am a member of both Environmental Systems (School of Engineering) and Quantitative and Systems Biology (School of Natural Sciences), apply here! http://graduatedivision.ucmerced.edu/
In new step in my academic journey, I’ve accepted a position at University of California, Merced as a tenure-track assistant professor starting in July 2015.
I’m very excited to be starting my own lab, moving to California and teaching at UC Merced.
My lab will be focused on evolution in viral and bacterial systems – I am recruiting postdocs, graduate students and undergraduate interns for fall semester 2015! My website is here: https://sistromlab.wordpress.com/
Looking forward to keeping SFN updated on how our research develops.
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