Assistant professor Dan Janies and team of researchers featured in latest issue of Genome Technology magazine
Thursday 07/12/2007
A team of researchers led by assistant professor Dan Janies has developed a new way to keep tabs on the spread of the avian flu virus. The new "supermap", as the article labels it, is an online global map of H5N1 in the form of phylogenetic trees projected onto earth. The project uses the same programming language and features that power Google Earth.
The new map is capable of locating outbreaks and possibly predicting them. It does this by using data on the virus's genetic mutations as well as evolutionary information. Different viral hosts (such as birds or insects) are illustrated on the map and can even be clicked on so that a user of the map can view data on mutations associated with that particular strain. Information gathered from the map can then alert researchers as to what strain needs to be watched for future outbreaks. Read the entire article by picking up a copy of the July/August issue of Genome Technology. Genome Technology Online 7/08/2008: Genome Technology has done a follow-up on this original article in the "Where Are They Now" section of their publication. The below text is taken directly from the new article:"That issue also focused on using 'omics tools to study infectious diseases, profiling Dan Janies, among others. Janies, an assistant professor at Ohio State University, has been working on tracking the H5N1 avian flu using a Google Earth-like map. Last October, Janies testified to the US Senate Homeland Security Committee on surveying diseases overseas with his "supermap.""
[Above text credited to http://www.genome-technology.com/issues/2_16/wherearethey/147810-1.html] [edit this news item]