Natasha Tilston
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Microbiology & Immunology
Oropouche virus causes recurrent outbreaks of sudden fever in Central and South America, with more than half a million documented infections since the early 1960s and likely many more that go uncounted because there is no good test to tell it apart from other febrile illnesses. The virus stores its genetic material in three separate RNA pieces: a small segment encoding the nucleoprotein that coats the genome, a medium segment encoding the surface glycoproteins the virus uses to enter cells, and a large segment encoding the enzyme that copies the viral genome.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Public Health & Epidemiology
Biology
- Topics
Oropouche virus
orthobunyavirus
arbovirus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2027
What they work on
- Identify, using cell culture infection experiments, how the different glycoproteins carried by circulating Oropouche virus reassortants change viral phenotypes such as entry into host cells.
- Compare the virulence of circulating Oropouche virus reassortants with that of Oropouche virus in a mouse model of infection.
- Relate glycoprotein differences among reassortants to host tissue tropism, immune evasion and potential vector competency, to assess the public health threat of these circulating viruses.
More about the research
Because the genome comes in pieces, two viruses infecting the same cell can swap segments, a process called reassortment. In influenza, reassortment produces the abrupt changes in surface proteins that spawn pandemic strains, but its consequences for bunyaviruses such as Oropouche are poorly understood even though three reassortant viruses are already circulating in South America.
Why it matters
Oropouche virus drives repeated outbreaks of acute febrile illness in Central and South America, and reassortant forms are already circulating without anyone knowing whether they cause more severe disease. Measuring their virulence could help public health agencies gauge the risk these viruses pose and could inform the design of antiviral treatments and vaccines that protect against Oropouche virus and its reassortants alike.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Cynthia McMillen
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Compare mother-to-offspring transmission of four Oropouche virus strains (BeAn19991, BeH759021, LET2083, AM0088) from four genetically distinct lineages, to test whether genomic reassortment underlies changes in tissue targeting and virulence.
Vanessa Rivera-Amill
Ponce Health Sciences University, PR·Public Health & Epidemiology
Strengthen surveillance and research capacity for acute febrile illnesses in Puerto Rico to improve detection of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and Oropouche, by combining clinical, community-based and laboratory data through the existing SEDSS and COPA platforms.
Scott Pegan
University of California-Riverside, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how non-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against GP38, a non-structural glycoprotein of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, confer protection, using combined molecular, cell-based and animal approaches.
The school
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis: 25 labs on PI Pages, $89M a year on research, 120 research doctorates a year.
More about Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.