Workshop report: Optimization of animal models to better predict influenza vaccine efficacy.

Animal models that can recapitulate the human immune system are essential for the preclinical development of safe and efficacious vaccines. Development and optimization of representative animal models are key components of the NIAID strategic plan for the development of a universal influenza vaccine. To gain insight into the current landscape of animal model usage in influenza vaccine development, NIAID convened a workshop in Rockville, Maryland that brought together experts from academia, industry and government.

Phylogeography of rubella virus in Asia: Vaccination and demography shape synchronous outbreaks.

Rubella virus causes mild disease in children but for women in the early stages of pregnancy, it can cause spontaneous abortion, congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) and associated birth defects. Despite the availability of an effective vaccine, rubella virus continues to circulate endemically in several regions of the world. This is particularly true in East and Southeast (E/SE) Asia, where control efforts vary widely among countries that are well connected through travel and immigration.

Small genome of the fungus Escovopsis weberi, a specialized disease agent of ant agriculture.

Many microorganisms with specialized lifestyles have reduced genomes. This is best understood in beneficial bacterial symbioses, where partner fidelity facilitates loss of genes necessary for living independently. Specialized microbial pathogens may also exhibit gene loss relative to generalists.

INTEGRATING PARASITES AND PATHOGENS INTO THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHIC RANGE LIMITS.

The geographic distributions of all species are limited, and the determining factors that set these limits are of fundamental importance to the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. Plant and animal ranges have been of primary concern, while those of parasites, which represent much of the Earth's biodiversity, have been neglected. Here, we review the determinants of the geographic ranges of parasites and pathogens, and explore how parasites provide novel systems with which to investigate the ecological and evolutionary processes governing host/parasite spatial distributions.

The Role of Human Transportation Networks in Mediating the Genetic Structure of Seasonal Influenza in the United States.

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of accounting for human mobility networks when modeling epidemics in order to accurately predict spatial dynamics. However, little is known about the impact these movement networks have on the genetic structure of pathogen populations and whether these effects are scale-dependent. We investigated how human movement along the aviation and commuter networks contributed to intra-seasonal genetic structure of influenza A epidemics in the continental United States using spatially-referenced hemagglutinin nucleotide sequences collected from 2003-2013 for both the H3N2 and H1N1 subtypes.

Transgenic parasites stably expressing full-length Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein as a model for vaccine down-selection in mice using sterile protection as an endpoint.

Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of Plasmodium falciparum is a protective human malaria vaccine candidate. There is an urgent need for models that can rapidly down-select novel CSP-based vaccine candidates. In the present study, the mouse-mosquito transmission cycle of a transgenic Plasmodium berghei malaria parasite stably expressing a functional full-length P.

Bats, emerging infectious diseases, and the rabies paradigm revisited.

The significance of bats as sources of emerging infectious diseases has been increasingly appreciated, and new data have been accumulated rapidly during recent years. For some emerging pathogens the bat origin has been confirmed (such as lyssaviruses, henipaviruses, coronaviruses), for other it has been suggested (filoviruses). Several recently identified viruses remain to be 'orphan' but have a potential for further emergence (such as Tioman, Menangle, and Pulau viruses).