Two new preprints are up on BioRXIV

2022 has been busy, hence I haven’t posted an update in a while….but here is a free picture of Nacho!

And two manuscripts we’ve been working hard on!!

Oropouche orthobunyavirus infection is mediated by the cellular host factor Lrp1

Madeline M. Schwarz, David A. Price, Safder S. Ganaie, Annie Feng, Nawneet Mishra, Ryan M. Hoehl, Farheen Fatma, Sarah H. Stubbs, Sean P.J. Whelan, Xiaoxia Cui, Takeshi Egawa, Daisy W. Leung, Gaya K. Amarasinghe, Amy L. Hartman

bioRxiv 2022.02.26.482111; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.26.482111

Congenital Rift Valley fever in Sprague Dawley rats is associated with diffuse infection and pathology of the placenta

Cynthia M. McMillen, Devin A. Boyles, Stefan G. Kostadinov, Ryan M. Hoehl, Madeline M. Schwarz, Joseph R. Albe, Matthew J. Demers, Amy L. Hartman

bioRxiv 2022.02.25.481831; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.25.481831

Lrp1: New host factor for Rift Valley fever virus infection

A major study of ours was just published in Cell, with a fabulous Leading Edge review written about the study. We had no idea that Cell was soliciting a review, so this was a complete surprise!

You can read my synopsis of our work and how it came about in my twitter thread here.

This was such an interesting journey from meeting Dr. Gaya Amarasinghe at NSV2018 to publication! Lots of individuals contributed over the years at several institutions and I’m super proud of this work. I’m also glad we can talk about it! The Lrp1 story has turned into a major effort in our lab and has cross-cutting implications for all of our projects.

Gaya and Amy at the Negative Strand Virus (NSV) Conference in 2018. This was the genesis of the Lrp1 project!

Gaya and Amy at the Negative Strand Virus (NSV) Conference in 2018. This was the genesis of the Lrp1 project!

Ganaie, S.S., M.M. Schwarz, C.M. McMillen, D. Price, A. Feng, J.R. Albe, W. Wang, S. Miersch, A. Ovredahl, A.R. Cole, M.F. Sentmanat, N. Mishra, D.A. Boyles, Z.T. Koenig, M.R. Kujawa, M.A. Demers, R.M. Hoehl, A. Moyle, N. Wagner, S.H. Stubbs, L. Cardarelli, J. Teyra, A.K. McElroy, M.L. Gross, S.P.J. Whelan, J. Doench, X. Cui, T.J. Brett, S.S. Sidhu, H.W. Virgin, T. Egawa, D.W. Leung, G.K. Amarasinghe, and A.L. Hartman. Lrp1 is a host entry factor for Rift Valley Fever Virus. Cell. Published online 23 September 2021.

New Pre-Print is posted

We have a new pre-print on BioRXIV. This is the companion paper to the EEEV paper we published earlier this year. Huge collaborative effort between Klimstra, Reed, and Hartman labs in the Pitt CVR.

“Long-term persistence of viral RNA and inflammation in the CNS of macaques exposed to aerosolized Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus,”

Henry Ma, Joseph R. Albe, Theron Gilliland, Cynthia M. McMillen, Christina L. Gardner, Devin A. Boyles, Emily L. Cottle, Matthew D. Dunn, Jeneveve D. Lundy, Noah Salama, Katherine J. O’Malley, Ivona Pandrea, Tobias Teichert, Stacey Barrick, William B. Klimstra, Amy L. Hartman, Douglas S. Reed

Milestones

We hit a lot of milestones this summer!

Maddy passed her comprehensive exam in July! She is now officially a PhD candidate.

Kaleigh passed her comprehensive exam in June! This is taken at the end of the 1st year.

Kaleigh.jpg

As of August 1, Cindy was promoted to Research Assistant Professor (RAP) and moved into her own space!

Join our team!

We have a job posting for a Research III Technician position to assist us with rodent work across multiple projects. No previous BSL-3 or virology experience needed. Rodent handling experience is required.

We are also actively seeking post-doctoral candidates. We have positions available in several project areas. Email me to find out more.

Scialog Fellow

I’m excited to be named as a Scialog Fellow for a 3-year assignment to mitigate zoonotic threats. This is something that I would not have been able to apply for pre-tenure (due to need to stay focused) but post-tenure, I can expand in new directions. I hope to be able to interact more with scientists at the USDA and foster collaborative efforts.

Fellows Selected for New Scialog: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats

We also have some very exciting publication news that I hope to be able to announce soon….

Our lab is growing....by 4 feet!

Lots of exciting news from our lab! We welcome two new students from different departments within the school of public health. They both have extensive experience in diverse background areas. We are excited for the unique perspective that they will bring to our projects.

Kaleigh Connors is a 1st year PhD student from IDM. She received her undergraduate degree from St. Petersburg College in Florida and her MS Public Health Microbiology and Emerging Infectious Disease in from George Washington University.

twitter: @sciencekaleigh

twitter: @sciencekaleigh

Justin Dutta is a 2nd year PhD student from the Human Genetics department within GSPH. Justin is a Pitt alum for undergrad (BS ‘15), and received his MPH from IDM in 2019. So Justin is not new to IDM but he is new to our lab!

twitter: @swimDUTTA

twitter: @swimDUTTA