Drs. Bokhari & Janies' paper accepted for publication
Tuesday 07/22/2008
Over the past two years Dr. Shahid Bokhari (Visiting
Scholar) and Dr. Daniel Janies (Associate Professor)
have been collaborating on a new method to investigate
the evolution of viruses such as influenza.
Their paper "Reassortment Networks for Investigating the
Evolution of Segmented Viruses" has been accepted for
publication in IEEE Transactions on Computational
Biology and Bioinformatics.
View an online abstract of the article by clicking here.
To view the preprint edition available online click here.
Viruses with segmented genomes evolve not only by point
mutation between ancestor and descendent viruses but
also by exchange of whole chromosome-like segments among
contemporary viruses.
Thus studies of evolution and spread of segmented viruses
involve challenges distinct from those found in animal
systems for which traditional tree-like models were
designed.
Drs. Bokhari and Janies have developed the concept of
"Reassortment Networks" that capture both exchange of
segments as well as mutation. They have also implemented
this concept such that analyses can be carried out in
a time-efficient fashion. This work is expected to have
applications in the monitoring of avian influenza and other
viral diseases that are threats to human and animal health.