Combining genomics and epidemiology to track mumps virus transmission in the United States.

Unusually large outbreaks of mumps across the United States in 2016 and 2017 raised questions about the extent of mumps circulation and the relationship between these and prior outbreaks. We paired epidemiological data from public health investigations with analysis of mumps virus whole genome sequences from 201 infected individuals, focusing on Massachusetts university communities. Our analysis suggests continuous, undetected circulation of mumps locally and nationally, including multiple independent introductions into Massachusetts and into individual communities. Despite the presence of these multiple mumps virus lineages, the genomic data show that one lineage has dominated in the US since at least 2006. Widespread transmission was surprising given high vaccination rates, but we found no genetic evidence that variants arising during this outbreak contributed to vaccine escape. Viral genomic data allowed us to reconstruct mumps transmission links not evident from epidemiological data or standard single-gene surveillance efforts and also revealed connections between apparently unrelated mumps outbreaks

Metagenomic investigation of co-infections of Ebola virus disease and Lassa fever patients

Thesis: M. Eng. in Computer Science and Molecular Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 37).Sequencing followed by metagenomic analysis is an extremely promising method for broad, unbiased disease profiling of patients for disease surveillance and diagnosis. Here, we use two popular metagenomics tools in union, k-mer-based Kraken with reads and BLAST- and LCAbased MEGAN with assembled contiguous sequence. We analyze sequence from 463 febrile and afebrile patients from Sierra Leone before and during the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak. We find that co-infection with malaria is correlated with increased survival of Ebola virus patients, from 18% survival rate to 53%. We also explore the utility of and emphasize the need for both positive and negative controls to distinguish and remove noise and contaminants from real signal, especially to keep up with increasing sensitivity in sequencing.by Lydia A. Krasilnikova.M. Eng. in Computer Science and Molecular Biolog

Combining genomics and epidemiology to track mumps virus transmission in the United States.

Unusually large outbreaks of mumps across the United States in 2016 and 2017 raised questions about the extent of mumps circulation and the relationship between these and prior outbreaks. We paired epidemiological data from public health investigations with analysis of mumps virus whole genome sequences from 201 infected individuals, focusing on Massachusetts university communities. Our analysis suggests continuous, undetected circulation of mumps locally and nationally, including multiple independent introductions into Massachusetts and into individual communities. Despite the presence of these multiple mumps virus lineages, the genomic data show that one lineage has dominated in the US since at least 2006. Widespread transmission was surprising given high vaccination rates, but we found no genetic evidence that variants arising during this outbreak contributed to vaccine escape. Viral genomic data allowed us to reconstruct mumps transmission links not evident from epidemiological data or standard single-gene surveillance efforts and also revealed connections between apparently unrelated mumps outbreaks