Achievement

The IGERT research cluster on ecology and pathogen biology made significant progress towards understanding vector borne disease transmission and the pattern of different viral isolates. Having completed their fieldwork in central Thailand (in the center of one of the world's hotspots of emerging diseases) IGERT Trainee Amy Henry and field partner IGERT Associate Panpim Thongsripong assisted by Trainee Argon Steel completed the first phase of the data analysis. The results show consistent patterns of mosquito vector distribution, diversity, and abundance associated with arboviral disease risk. IGERT Associate Argon Steel also successfully developed a method to accurately and reproducibly detect and quantify the presence of different dengue virus isolates from a series of related outbreaks. This technique allows for measurements of such characteristics as generation over time and multiplicity of infection in order to understand the evolution of dengue transmission.