de-CIPHERing Infectious Disease
Science
In this episode, we are joined by co-director of CIPHER and bioinformatics expert: Dr. Dan Janies. He discusses his background and work in using computational methods and genomic data to study infectious diseases. He explains how he traced the origins of the SARS coronavirus to bats and used bioinformatics to track the spread of diseases like SARS, bird flu, and COVID-19 variants. Dr. Janies describes innovating techniques like projecting phylogenetic trees onto Google Earth to visualize disease movement and calculating protein structures to predict immune evasion. He shares his vision for "functional molecular epidemiology" to not just detect mutations but understand their impacts, and emphasizes the need for constant genomic surveillance to stop outbreaks before they become pandemics. This work is truly interdisciplinary and cutting edge.
Find out more at cipher.charlotte.edu.
Key Takeaways
This podcast was produced and edited by Zack Jackson
CIPHER is a proud part of UNC Charlotte who holds all rights to the content created by this podcast
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