Achievement

Trainee Argon Steel, in collaboration with Duane Gubler, world expert on Dengue virus at Duke-National University of Singapore medical school, has learned the difficult techniques necessary to successfully carry out mosquito inoculation and measure the growth of viruses using the mosquito infectious dose (MID50) technique. Trainee Steel, advisor and IGERT co-PI Shannon Bennett are now using this method to measure the growth rate of Dengue virus from historic outbreaks in the Pacific Islands that showed exceptional variation in the level of disease seen. Some islands suffered only mild epidemics while others had more severe disease. Steel, Bennett and Gubler are now testing the hypothesis that genetic changes found by sequencing these viruses are responsible for increased growth in mosquitoes leading to more severe disease.