Presenters' Abstracts

Daniel Janies, Ph.D.

Genomic and Geographic Analysis of the Evolution and Spread of Infectious Disease

Emerging infectious diseases present critical issues of public health and economic welfare. As demonstrated by the coordinated international response to SARS, novel diseases are being addressed via rapid genomic sequencing. However, our ability to make sense of these data lags behind data collection. First, genomic analyses such as the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees are computationally difficult, requiring novel algorithmic approaches and high performance computers. Next, even when phylogenetic trees are produced, we have hardly begun to understand how disease-causing organisms evolve and travel over various hosts and geography to become epidemics. To these ends we have created an interactive genomic and geographic map using phylogenetic trees and GoogleTM Earth to reconstruct the evolution and spread of avian influenza lineages (H5N1) over the past decade. By examining a phylogenetic tree of H5N1 projected onto the globe we have studied visually and statistically whether and where key genotypes in viral proteins are correlated with host shifts and resistance to therapeutic drugs. Dr. Janies will provide other examples of how the workflow system, available in prototype at supramap.osu.edu, can be used to inspire and test retrospective and predictive hypotheses of the evolution and geographic spread of microbial pathogens in animal and human populations.