The Evolution & Distribution of Zoonotic Disease
One Health: Human, animal, and environmental health are inextricably linked.
The Driscoll Lab at West Virginia University
We use genomics and bioinformatics to track disease agents and understand how they originate and spread, from a One Health perspective.
Funding for our work is provided by National Institutes of Health; National Science Foundation; Centers for Disease Control & Prevention; and Food & Drug Administration.
Disease agents (pathogens) that normally circulate in animals can acquire mutations that enable infection and transmission in humans. These spillover events (zoonoses) can lead to disease outbreaks, epidemics, or pandemics.
SARS, influenza, MPox,and HIV are all examples of zoonotic pathogens.
The central research focus of our group is to determine where these disease agents circulate, the impact of environmental pressures such as climate change, water quality, and land use on their distribution and genomic makeup, and how likely they are to spillover into humans and other animals.
Vector-borne disease agents are also zoonotic pathogens. They normally circulate in reservoir species such as mice and deer and require a vector (ticks, fleas, mosquitos, etc.) for transmission to humans.
Lyme disease, Rickettsioses, typhus, and LaCrosse encephalitis are all examples of vector-borne diseases.
Changing climate, land use, and human community structures can contribute to a rise in vector-borne disease in humans and other animals. We study the genomes of these pathogens to better understand the interplay between host, vector, and pathogen from cellular up through population levels.
