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New Administrative Leader Takes Reins at CUMC
Mailman School Research
| Virus in Transplant Surgery Identified The mystery of what killed three women in Australia after seemingly routine transplantation surgery has been solved with a new test devised by Mailman School scientists that rapidly identifies unknown viruses, bacteria and fungi. The results of the study were published in the March 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The pathogen responsible is a new type of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Knowledge of its identity will improve pathogen screening of donors and the safety of transplantation. More broadly, the technique will also revolutionize the search for new pathogens that cause outbreaks of infectious disease and enable scientists to explore the role of infection in chronic diseases such as cancer, type I diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive lung disease, and even some forms of mental illness, says the study’s senior author, W. Ian Lipkin, MD, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and professor of neurology and pathology. “This powerful tool allows us to achieve with a small team in only a few days what formerly required several weeks of work by several people,” Dr Lipkin says. “Other rapid detection techniques we employ in the center, such as multiplex PCR and microarrays, are limited to already known organisms. In contrast, high throughout pyrosequencing is truly a pathogen discovery technology.” The method that identified the virus relies on a new DNA sequencer developed by 454 Life Sciences. With colleagues at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Australia, the CDC, and 454 Life Sciences, scientists in the Mailman School‘s Center for Infection and Immunity analyzed more than 100,000 sequences from the organ recipients. They then used bioinformatics tools to identify the sequences that were not human. Further analysis revealed the virus. Dr. Lipkin and colleagues are internationally recognized as pioneers in the field of pathogen surveillance and discovery. Among their contributions are the first use of molecular methods to characterize a new infectious agent, identification of West Nile virus as the cause of encephalitis in New York City in 1999, the first sensitive PCR assay for SARS, discovery of a new rhinovirus that causes pneumonia in children, and the association of a novel virus with honey bee colony collapse disorder.
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