December 2019

The Ebel laboratory’s research on West Nile virus (WNV) in crows was recently featured in Westword. The article addresses ongoing protests from PETA and emphasizes the involvement of CSU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which approves and creates humane protocols for all experimental procedures that are administered to the birds.

From the article: “What we’re trying to do is to understand at a really fundamental level how [WNV] works and why it works the way that it does,” [Ebel] says. “It’s basic science, but it’s the foundation of anything that we’re going to do ten years from now.”

With thanks to Westword reporter Hannah Gartner.

https://www.westword.com/news/peta-protesters-call-on-csu-to-end-experiment-involving-birds-11562694

Ph.D. Candidate Reyes Murrieta was honored at the 2019 SACNAS National Diversity in STEM conference. He presented his research on the effect of extrinsic incubation temperature on Zika virus population genetics and won an award for his oral presentation in the category of Life Sciences (Ecology/Evolutionary Biology & Plant Sciences/Botany).

The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) awarded 82 underrepresented minority students at the conference for their scientific work and presentation skills.

Reyes has been with the Ebel lab since the summer of 2015. His research uses computational biology and experimental virology to study how different ecological and environmental conditions may impact Flavivirus population structure.

Pictured: Reyes Murrieta (left) at SACNAS 2019.