The PPP DA showcases four theme areas within its research – Jump, Replicate, Spread, and Empower. By design, we will make independent progress on each theme while supporting the exchange of ideas both internally and externally to Virginia Tech.
Jump
Goal: Create machine learning (ML) methods to predict mutations that will enable a virus to shift from an animal host and adapt to infect humans.
Team members:
Jonathan Auguste, Entomology, virus ecology and pathogenesis
Deb Bhattacharya, Computer Science (CS), protein structure modeling
Luis Escobar, Fish and Wildlife Conservation, disease ecology and biogeography
Anuj Karpatne, CS, knowledge-guided ML
X. J. Meng, Biomedical Sci. and Pathobiology (BSP), virology
T. M. Murali, CS, computational biology
Replicate
Goal: Use organoid engineering to test human susceptibility to viruses with pandemic potential and understand the life cycle of a virus to devise ways to interrupt its replication.
Team Members:
Sanket Deshmukh, Chemical Eng. (ChemE), multiscale modeling and integrated ML
Kylene Kehn-Hall, BSP, virology and antiviral discovery
Padma Rajagopalan, ChemE., tissue engineering and 3D organoid models
Webster Santos, Chemistry, drug discovery and design
Paul Skolnik, Virginia Tech-Carilion School of Medicine, infectious disease and clinical trials
James Weger-Lucarelli, BSP, viral evolution and genetics.
Spread
Goal: Develop models to predict how a virus spreads from one person to another and across populations with the goal of devising methods to prevent transmission.
Team members:
Lauren Childs, Mathematics, mathematical modeling of infectious disease dynamics
Navid Ghaffarzadegan, Industrial and Systems Eng.; epidemic modeling, system dynamics modeling, simulation-based policy analysis
Linsey Marr, Civil and Environmental Eng., virus transport and fate in the environment
Naren Ramakrishnan, CS, data science and applied ML.
Empower
Goal: Ethically engage vulnerable communities to equitably shape and effectively communicate pandemic science.
Team members:
Julie Gerdes, English, Infectious disease/outbreak communication
Kathy Hosig, Population Health Sciences, community-based participatory research
Lisa M. Lee, Population Health Sciences and Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance, bioethics
Patricia Raun, School of Performing Arts, Center for Communicating Science director.