Margaret S. Cheung, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, will lecture on "NW-BRaVE for Biopreparedness: Enhancing biopreparedness through a model system to understand the molecular mechanisms that lead to pathogenesis and disease transmission"
Abstract: In my presentation, I will provide a current update on a recently awarded project, NW-BRaVE, by the Department of Energy Office of Science in response to the National Biopreparedness Initiative. The science of biopreparedness to counter biological threats hinges on understanding the fundamental principles and molecular mechanisms that lead to pathogenesis and disease transmission. NW-BRaVE’s vision to address this challenge is to create a powerful and user-friendly platform to elucidate the fundamental principles of how molecular interactions drive pathogen-host relationships and host shifts. We will enable groundbreaking discoveries by integrating a wide range of structural, genomics, proteomics, and other advanced omics measurements, along with evolutionary and artificial intelligence predictions. To make sure the system is applicable to real-world problems, it will be developed in the context of a tractable model system, the small, abundant, and accessible photosynthetic cyanobacteria and their constantly co-adapting viral pathogens, cyanophages. This model will maintain the system’s applicability to real-world problems and techniques, but the overall focus will be on elucidating general principles of detecting, assessing, and surveilling molecular interaction, adaptation, and coevolution that are system agnostic and therefore extensible to any other viral-host interaction. The impact of the project will be to develop, implement, and test a platform to assess host-pathogen molecular interactions, adaptation to hosts and host shifts, and coevolution between hosts and pathogens. This ability will be critical for designing early interventions to address future threats.
