UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH CONTENTS PAGE

Undergraduate Research at Virginia Tech

Fall 2007

Increasing Virginia Tech-Malian Relations to Save Lives

By Alyssa Haak, sophomore English major

Diseases attributed to mosquitoes are becoming more problematic as the years pass. Arguably, there are many reasons for this increase; some say that it’s because the climate is changing, others proclaim it is due to a growing human population extending into mosquito-infested territories, and there are those who believe that there is no growth in cases at all but rather an increase in media coverage. Regardless, mosquito infections such as dengue and yellow fever are a dangerous issue. Virginia Tech senior Christine George is working to fight it.

Last year, as a junior in biological sciences, George began her undergraduate research on Aedes mosquitoes, the insect known for spreading the dengue and yellow fever viruses. In the fall of 2006, George was selected into an entomology study course under the guidance of Professors Don Mullins and Richard Fell. Included in this two semester class was a January trip to Mali to learn about Mali culture, agriculture, and public health systems. Travel for the class was funded by a USDA Higher Education Challenge grant, on which Mullins and Fell are collaborators with faculty members at Montana State University, where Florence V. Dunkel, associate professor of plant sciences and plant pathology, is Principal Investigator of the grant.

While in Mali, George worked with researchers and physicians from the Malaria Research and Training Center at the Medical University in Bamako, Mali. George discovered that Mali did not have any research or work being done on mosquito-borne viruses. Given the abundance of these viruses in that particular African region, she decided this must change.

Through her work as an undergraduate research assistant in Zach Adelman’s lab, George was aware of the increased funding that Virginia Tech has recently put into the Vector-Borne Disease Research Group. Adelman, an assistant professor of entomology, is a member of the group. George presented Adelman with her ideas for providing Mali with the preliminary data and education to set up a “sustainable mosquito-borne virus surveillance center.” Her seemingly lofty goals are now well underway. As the saying goes: When you reach for the moon, you land among the stars.

To conduct the necessary research and surveillance, as well as pay for the trip, George raised $15,000*, which was matched by $10,000 from Adelman. She returned to Mali in July of 2007 to begin her project. In order to allocate her time properly while in Mali, George broke her goals into three step-by-step processes. This past summer, she worked on generating her ideal “Near-term Project Impacts,” which are to determine the high risk areas of mosquito-borne infections, foster Virginia Tech-Malian working relations to continue work towards a sustainable Malian surveillance center, and provide enough data and information for the Mali people to apply for additional funding and support.

George began the first phase by traveling to high-risk areas and collecting and separating Aedes mosquitoes by sex. She and her team then preserved the mosquitoes in liquid nitrogen in order to test their infection status at a later time. Malian public health authorities provided 95 samples of human blood that had possibly been infected with yellow fever. All of the samples were transferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Dengue Branch, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Upon completion, this research will tell government and non-government organizations where to focus vector control, virus surveillance, and medical assistance.

Phase I has already yielded results. George has established collaborative Virginia Tech-Mali working relations, provided undergraduate and graduate students with valuable training, and determined field infection levels of dengue and yellow fever. The field testing by George’s team determined that every district visited provided the dangerous conditions necessary for viral transmission. Also, after researching the increase in infections during the months of September, October, and early November, Ms. George and her team suggested that the increase may not be entirely due to those months being the end of the rainy season, when the mosquito population is high. Crop harvesting also occurs during these same three months and Aedes mosquitoes thrive in the woods and rocks close to fields. Also, nomadic primates, known reservoirs of the diseases, live in the region.

As George explains, “The high density of the vector, plus the presence of a virus reservoir and increased human presence provides the perfect set-up for a mosquito-borne virus outbreak.”

Her research will continue until the sustainable surveillance network is created.

Phase II of George’s research plan involves training Malian scientists in molecular arbovirology. This training will be provided at Virginia Tech by faculty members associated with the vector-borne infectious disease research program. After training for as little as several months and as long as four years, the Mali students will return to their country and establish themselves as arbovirologists who will maintain the viral surveillance center.

This work is ongoing and truthfully promising. It is research that Virginia Tech should certainly be proud of.

 

* Christine George raised the money by meeting with any one who might be interested in the project. Donations came from the Departments of Entomology, Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, and Geography at Virginia Tech. She was awarded scholarships from the College of Science and the University Honors program and a Wilkins/Fralin Undergraduate Research Fellowship with a $3,000 salary for completing research over the summer. She donated all of the money to her Mali project.  When she gave a presentation to the College of Science Dean's Round Table, two alumni donated money. If you are interested in donating to George’s cause, contact Jennifer Orzolek in University Development at jorzolek@vt.edu regarding the College of Science’s Research in Mali fund.