Projects: Scroll down to see different Hanley Lab Projects!

 

Project 1: CREATE-NEO

As one of ten NIH-funded Centers for Research on Emerging Infectious  Diseases (https://creid-network.org/),
the Coordinating Research on Emerging Infectious Disease Encompassing the Neotropics (CREATE-NEO, https://www.utmb.edu/createneo/
home/create-neo-home
) provides a nimble and flexible network of surveillance sites in Central and South America coupled with cutting-edge modeling approaches to anticipate and counter emerging arboviruses.  Co-PI’s Nik Vasilakis and Kathryn Hanley partner with a wide array of partners across the US, Brazil and Panama to enact CREATE-NEO’s mission.
 
Como um dos dez Centros de Pesquisa sobre Doenças Infecciosas Emergentes financiados pelo NIH (https://creid-network.org/), o Coordinating Research on Emerging Infectious Disease Encompassing the Neotropics (Centro de pesquisa em doenças infecciosas emergentes nos Neotrópicos) (CREATE-NEO,  https://www.utmb.edu/createneo/home/create-neo-home/) fornece uma rede ágil e flexível de vigilância em diferentes locais da América Central e do Sul, integrando abordagens de modelagem para antecipar e combater os arbovírus emergentes. Os pesquisadores coordenadores, Nik Vasilakis e Kathryn Hanley tem colaboração estabelecida com ampla gama de parceiros nos EUA, Brasil e Panamá para cumprir a missão do CREATE-NEO.
 
                          
Como uno de los diez Centros para la Investigación de Enfermedades Infecciosas Emergentes (https://creid-network.org/) financiados por los NIH, la Coordinación de Investigación sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas Emergentes en el Neotrópico (CREATE-NEO, https://www.utmb.edu/createneo/home/create-neo-home) proporciona una red ágil y flexible de sitios de vigilancia en América Central y del Sur junto con enfoques de modelado de vanguardia para anticipar y contrarrestar los arbovirus emergentes. Nik Vasilakis y Kathryn Hanley de Co-PI se asocian con una amplia gama de socios en los EE. UU., Brasil y Panamá para promulgar la misión de CREATE-NEO.

 

Representative Publications

Forest edge landscape context affects mosquito community composition and risk of pathogen emergence.

Hendy A, Fé NF, Pedrosa I, Girão A, Dos Santos TNF, Mendonça CR, Andes Júnior JT, Assunção FP, Costa ER, Sluydts V, Gordo M, Scarpassa VM, Buenemann M, de Lacerda MVG, Mourão MPG, Vasilakis N, Hanley KA.bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 May 3:2024.04.30.591911. doi: 10.1101/2024.04.30.591911.

YELLOW ALERT: Persistent Yellow Fever Virus Circulation among Non-Human Primates in Urban Areas of Minas Gerais State, Brazil (2021-2023).

Garcia-Oliveira GF, Guimarães ACDS, Moreira GD, Costa TA, Arruda MS, de Mello ÉM, Silva MC, de Almeida MG, Hanley KA, Vasilakis N, Drumond BP.Viruses. 2023 Dec 23;16(1):31. doi: 10.3390/v16010031.

 

The Coordinating Research on Emerging Arboviral Threats Encompassing the Neotropics (CREATE-NEO).

Vasilakis N, Hanley KA.Zoonoses (Burlingt). 2023;3(1):16. doi: 10.15212/zoonoses-2022-0047. Epub 2023 Apr 18.

 

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At the 2023 CREID meeting: Ben Althouse (NMSU and UW), Nik Vasilakis (UTMB), Lee Gherke (MIT), Kathy Hanley, Shannan Rossi (UTMB), Livia Sacchetto (FAMERP), Mauricio Nogueria (FAMERP), Betania Drumond (UFMG). In the Pantanal for fieldwork: second to left: Daniel Aguiar (UFMG), Barbara Han (Cary Institute), Adrian Castellanos (Cary Institute) and Kathy Hanley, with UFMG research team.

 

 

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In the Darien province of Panama: Jean Paul Carrera (in sunglasses) and Team (Gorgas Institute) moving a freezer in Darien, Panama. In the Darien province of Panama, Michaela Buenemann on a piragua.

 

Project 2: Trade-Off Project

The evolution of pathogen virulence is shaped, in part, by the trade-off between the level of pathogen replication, which determines instantaneous rate of transmission, and the duration of infection.  While most studies have focused on pathogen-induced mortality as the regulator of infection duration, we are testing how the innate immune response shapes the transmission-clearance trade-off for dengue virus and Zika virus in native and novel non-human primate hosts.  The results of this study will enhance our current understanding of the factors that shape virus evolution and our ability to predict virus emergence.

L’évolution de la virulence des agents pathogènes est en partie déterminée par le compromis évolutif entre le niveau de réplication de l’agent d’une part, qui détermine son taux de transmission instantanée, et la durée d’infection d’autre part. Alors que la plupart des études existantes évoquent la mortalité induite par l’agent pathogène comme un régulateur de la durée d’infection, nous nous intéressons quant à nous à la manière dont la réponse immunitaire innée peut être impliquée dans le compromis évolutif entre transmission et élimination. Nous étudions ici cette question pour les virus de la dengue et Zika chez des hôtes primates non-humains, pour des espèces que l’on retrouve infectées naturellement sur le terrain, mais également pour des espèces qui pourraient constituer de nouvelles populations d’hôtes. Les résultats de ce projet permettront d’accroitre notre compréhension des facteurs qui déterminent l’évolution des virus, et de ce fait notre capacité à prédire leur émergence.

This study is a collaboration among Kathy Hanley, Nik Vasilakis (UTMB), Ben Althouse (NMSU and UW), Shannan Rossi (UTMB), Sasha Azar (Houston Methodist), and Hélène Cecilia (NMSU), with support from Brett Moehn (NMSU), Ivy Yu (NMSU) and Ruimei Yun (UTMB).

 

Representative Publications

Trade-offs shaping transmission of sylvatic dengue and Zika viruses in monkey hosts.

Hanley KA, Cecilia H, Azar SR, Moehn BA, Gass JT, Oliveira da Silva NI, Yu W, Yun R, Althouse BM, Vasilakis N, Rossi SL.Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 27;15(1):2682. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46810-x.

 Aedes albopictus is not an arbovirus aficionado - Impacts of sylvatic flavivirus infection in vectors and hosts on mosquito engorgement on non-human primates.

Cecilia H, Althouse BM, Azar SR, Moehn BA, Yun R, Rossi SL, Vasilakis N, Hanley KA.bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Mar 11:2024.02.19.580944. doi: 10.1101/2024.02.19.580944.

 

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Nik Vasilakis, Shannan Rossi,

Kathy Hanley, and Sasha Azar

 

       

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Fitting the curves!

 

Project 3: An Early Warning System for VSV Emergence

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a vector-borne pathogen of livestock that circulates endemically in the neotropics from southern Mexico to northern South America.  VSV emerges periodically into the US, causing outbreaks across the mountain west for one to three years before receding (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/cattle-disease-information/vesicular-stomatitis-info).

The trigger for these outbreaks is unknown, and indeed many key aspects of VSV ecology remain to be discovered. Our team works as part of a larger USDA Grand Challenge project and with Mexico’s SENASICA to elucidate the key vectors for VSV transmission in an incursion region in southern New Mexico, USA as well as VSV transmission dynamics in its endemic region in Chiapas, Mexico.  We have also recently initiated studies of VSV occurrence in the “stepping stone” states of Jalisco and Chihuahua, Mexico as well as the endemic country of Costa Rica.

 

 

El virus de la estomatitis vesicular (VSV) es un patógeno del ganado transmitido por vectores que circula endémicamente en el neotrópico desde el sur de México hasta el norte de América del Sur. El VSV surge periódicamente en los EE. UU. y provoca brotes en el oeste montañoso durante uno a tres años antes de retroceder (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/cattle-disease-information /estomatitis-vesicular-info).

Se desconoce el desencadenante de estos brotes y, de hecho, aún quedan por descubrir muchos aspectos clave de la ecología del VSV. Nuestro equipo trabaja como parte de un proyecto USDA Grand Challenge más grande y con SENASICA de México para elucidar los vectores clave para la transmisión de VSV en una región de incursión en el sur de Nuevo México, EE. UU., así como la dinámica de transmisión de VSV en su región endémica en Chiapas, México. También hemos iniciado recientemente estudios de la ocurrencia de VSV en los estados de "trampolín" de Jalisco y Chihuahua, México y tambien el pais endémico Costa Rica.

Representative Publications

Community composition of black flies during and after the 2020 vesicular stomatitis virus outbreak in Southern New Mexico, USA.

Whelpley MJ, Zhou LH, Rascon J, Payne B, Moehn B, Young KI, Mire CE, Peters DPC, Rodriguez LL, Hanley KA.Parasit Vectors. 2024 Feb 27;17(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s13071-024-06127-6.

 

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 This study is funded by USDA contracts USDA NACA 58-3022-2-018 and USDA NACA 58-8064-9-012.

 

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VSV Grand Challenge Collaborators

Willian Freysser Urbina López (SENASICA), Lawrence Zhou (NMSU), Irene Ochoa Perez, Federico Valdez, Jonathon Alexander Gutiérrez Díaz, and Nathan Penagos Castellanos in Chiapas, feeling optimistic about finding the lair of VSV!

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Roberto Navarro (SENASICA),  Alfredo Pedrero Villanueva (Santa Clara del Roble), Kathy Hanley (NMSU), Katie Young (NMSU), Eduardo Hernandez Acosta (NMSU), Carlos Campos (NMSU) and best friends Irene Ochoa Perez (SENASICA) and Lawrence Zhou (NMSU) in the field (literally) in Chiapas.

From left, Luis Rodriguez (USDA), Carlos Jimenez (UNA, Costa Rica), the farm manager,  Kathy, Chad Mire (USDA) and Bernal Leon (SENASA, Costa Rica)