Research Projects
During my time at HCGS, I have worked on a variety of pathogen surveillance projects in collaboration with the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory. Hosts have ranged from songbirds and porcupines to beaked whales, sharks, and dolphins. In studying skin lesions from an endangered broadnose sevengill shark, I detected a novel virus. This virus was revealed to share features of three different viral families and was characterized using AI protein structure prediction to give insight into its molecular mechanisms—how the virus builds copies of itself and infects the host. Importantly, the host immune response was also measured, providing insight into the oldest group of animals with an adaptive immune response.
My current work is focused on identifying and characterizing the pathogen responsible for the 2022 canine infectious respiratory disease outbreak (ongoing). Analysis revealed small pieces of an unusual bacterium in many of the diseased samples, most closely related to bacteria found lurking in the airways of diseased humans. This bacterium is highly abnormal, making it incredibly difficult to sequence with typical methods, and my research efforts are presently focused on using new techniques to enable a fuller understanding of this potential pathogen.
Click on the links below to go to the project pages!