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Principal Investigator: Philippe DUSSART
Organization: PASTEUR INSTITUTE FROM MADAGASCAR
Fiscal Year: 2020
Award: $134,977
Funding agency: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Zoonotic pathogens derived from an animal reservoir account for some 60-75% of emerging
infectious diseases in humans, a disproportionate number of which take place in resource poor
countries where the economic and social burden of corresponding health crises is greatest. Bats have
received much attention in recent years for their role as the putative reservoir hosts for a number of
high profile, virulent zoonoses, including Ebola and Marbug filoviruses, Hendra and Nipah
henipaviruses, and SARS coronavirus, all of which demonstrate peaks in transmission—both between
bats and from bats to spillover hosts (including humans)—during the resource-poor dry season for the
system in question. Seasonal forcings are known to play an important role in driving epidemic cycles in
infectious diseases for both humans and wildlife, though the mechanistic drivers of seasonality can
sometimes be difficult to identify. In bat systems, researchers have posited that dynamical patterns
could result from pulsed additions of annual, synchronous births to the pool susceptible to immunizing
viruses, while others have suggested that bats might instead maintain these viruses as persistent
infections across the duration of their lifespans and undergo periodic bouts of viral shedding. A true
understanding of these dynamics will be essential to predicting and preventing the next bat zoonosis, a
critical public health aim for developing world countries, like Madagascar, where we base our work. To
date, longitudinal data of a fine enough scale do not exist to distinguish among the proposed
hypotheses. Our project brings together a diverse team of molecular biologists from Institut Pasteur de
Madagascar and Duke-NUS, epidemiological modelers from Princeton, and field ecologists from
Harvard to address these challenges. In Aim 1 of our research, we introduce novel Luminex assays to
identify henipaviruses, filoviruses, coronaviruses, and lyssaviruses antibodies in both bat and human serum samples in Madagascar.
In Aim 2, we build mechanistic transmission models exploring the proposed hypotheses of seasonal
drivers of infection dynamics in bat systems, and in Aim 3, we unite these goals in a longitudinal model-
guided field study, with corresponding serological and molecular analyses, which will generate the data
needed to enable effective model comparison and evaluation. Our work addresses questions of critical
interest to both evolutionary biology and public health, while simultaneously building scientific
capacities in the developing world.
Terms: <Address><Adopted><Age><Animals><Antibodies><Antibody titer measurement><Assay><Attention><Automobile Driving><Autophagocytosis><Bats><Bioassay><Biologic Assays><Biological><Biological Assay><Biology><Birth><Blood Plasma><Blood Serum><Body Tissues><Chiroptera><Collaborations><Collection><Communicable Diseases><Communities><Consequentialism><Coronaviridae><Coronavirus><Country><Cyclicity><Data><Ebola><Economics><Educational workshop><Emerging Communicable Diseases><Emerging Infectious Diseases><Epidemic><Epidemiology><Equine Morbillivirus><Evaluation><Event><Excretory function><Expression Profiling><Family><Filoviridae><Filovirus><Frankfurt-Marburg Syndrome Virus><Fruit><Future><Genes><Goals><Head><Health><Hendra><Hendra Virus><Henipavirus><Human><Immune response><Immunize><Immunochemical Immunologic><Immunologic><Immunological><Immunological response><Immunologically><Immunologics><Infection><Infectious Disease Pathway><Infectious Diseases><Infectious Disorder><Investigators><Lead><Length of Life><Longevity><Lyssavirus><Madagascar><Malagasy Republic><Marburg><Marburg virus><Medicine><Modeling><Modern Man><Molecular><Molecular Analysis><Parturition><Pattern><Pb element><Performance><Periodicity><Pharyngeal structure><Pharynx><Physiologic><Physiologic pulse><Physiological><Plasma><Plasma Serum><Play><Population><Process><Public Health><Pulse><Research><Research Personnel><Research Resources><Researchers><Resources><Reticuloendothelial System, Serum, Plasma><Rhythmicity><Risk><Role><SARS><SARS Virus><SARS corona virus><SARS coronavirus><SARS coronavirus disease><SARS-Associated Coronavirus><SARS-CoV><SARS-CoV disease><SARS-Related Coronavirus><Sampling><Scientist><Seasons><Secondary to><Series><Serologic><Serologic tests><Serological><Serological Tests><Seroprevalences><Serum><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV disease><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Virus><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome corona virus><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus disease><Swab><System><Taxon><Techniques><Technology><Testing><Throat><Time><Tissues><Transmission><Universities><Urine><Urine Urinary System><Variant><Variation><Viral><Viral Antibodies><Viral Diseases><Viral Shedding><Viremia><Virulent><Virus><Virus Diseases><Virus Shedding><Work><Workshop><Zoonoses><Zoonotic><Zoonotic Infection><ages><anti-viral antibody><antibody titering><antiviral antibody><autophagy><base><bat-borne><batborne><chronic infection><college><collegiate><corona virus><cross-species spillover><cross-species transmission><dietary fruit><driving><epidemiologic><epidemiological><epidemiological model><excretion><field based data><field learning><field study><field test><heavy metal Pb><heavy metal lead><host jump><host response><host switching><immunoresponse><interest><interspecies transmission><life span><lifespan><novel><pathogen><persistent infection><prevent><preventing><professor><serology><severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV><skills><social><social role><tool><transmission across species><transmission between species><transmission process><transmitted across species><transmitted between species><transmitted cross-species><viraemia><viral infection><viral sepsis><virology><virus infection><virus-induced disease><virusemia>