Dr. Emily Gallichotte was featured recently on CBS Denver’s “Good Question” segment. A listener asked whether SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted through mosquito bites, and CBS Denver reached out to Dr. Gallichotte for more information. From the interview:

“In science we want to be very cautious. All of the evidence from WHO and CDC and every expert in the field says it is essentially no,” says post-doctoral research scientist Emily Gallichotte.

“Mosquitoes aren’t just syringes that transfer blood possibly with virus from one person to another. It takes that blood, it gets into their gut and then it has to survive seven days at least to make its way and replicate through the mosquito’s body and end up in the saliva to then be transferred to that next person.”

Find the full segment and more information on the CBS Denver website. With big thanks to Alan Gionet for giving our lab an opportunity to answer such timely questions!

The Ebel lab’s SARS-CoV-2 surveillance work in Colorado long-term care facilities has been featured in the Coloradoan. From the article:

“The facilities, used to taking precautions against things like seasonal flu outbreaks, seemed to be doing everything right. No visitors were allowed in. Employees of the five Denver metro area living communities were screened for coronavirus symptoms each day they reported to work. Management was following guidance from the state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But as the test results came back, it became clear that dozens of infected workers were showing no symptoms at all. Of 462 employees tested in the first two months of the Colorado State University project, 57 people (about 12.3%) were coronavirus-positive but had no symptoms. The positive rate at the five facilities ranged between 1% and 23%.

“Most people in our study who are virus positive are not sick,” said Ebel, a CSU professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology whose lab processed the tests. “And they’re really virus-positive. They’re not just kind of, a little bit positive. There is no doubt that they’re very positive and capable of transmitting.””

Greg Ebel, left, and Nicole Ehrhart, right, are collaborating on a Colorado State University project to test asymptomatic employees of skilled nursing facilities for coronavirus. (Photo: Courtesy of Colorado State University)

With thanks to Coloradoan City Government Reporter Jacy Marmaduke!

The Ebel lab’s SARS-CoV-2 surveillance work in Colorado long-term care facilities has been featured in the Colorado Sun. From the article:

“A brainstorming call sparked the connection. Soon, Ehrhart and Ebel had a plan in place with Lakewood-based Vivage Senior Living to test workers at five Vivage facilities in Colorado. And, most importantly, they were going to test the workers over and over again.

“What is unique about this testing versus pretty much anything we’ve seen so far is we are testing people weekly,” Ehrhart said.

That would give the researchers insight into the virus’s spread and how long workers remain infected. It would give the facilities an early warning that a worker was sick and a precise idea when the worker could come back to work. Most importantly, it would help keep the facilities’ residents safe — and their staff.

“Health care workers are this really critical, finite resource that needs to be protected,” Ebel said.”

Research at CSU shows why testing only symptomatic people won’t stop coronavirus in Colorado

With big thanks to John Ingold!

The Ebel lab’s SARS-CoV-2 surveillance work in Colorado long-term care facilities has been featured in the Dallas Morning News. From the article:

“In Colorado, Connecticut and Washington such efforts have been underway, identifying asymptomatic carriers and isolating them so they will not spread the disease to coworkers or residents.

Over the last two months, a lab run by Colorado State University microbiology professor Greg Ebel tested 462 nursing home workers in Colorado to gauge whether workers without symptoms were silently carrying the virus. The lab identified 57 people who tested positive but had no symptoms.

“This kind of surveillance is extraordinarily valuable to these vulnerable communities to help reduce risks,” Ebel said.”

With thanks to Sue Ambrose, Allie Morris and Miles Moffeit.

The following article appeared in Colorado State University’s SOURCE, a central hub for news about the university. The Ebel lab is grateful to Mary Guiden for the write up about our recent efforts!

Minimizing transmission: Testing asymptomatic healthcare workers to find silent COVID-19 carriers

Ph.D. Candidate Bekah McMinn was featured in a recent video from CSU’s Office of the Vice President for Research.

In the video, she discusses her work on xenosurveillance in Guatemala and its implications for global disease surveillance. “Being able to sample blood from humans and animals in mosquitoes is a huge sample source that we can utilize for a number of different things… the number of applications is kind of limitless.”

With a shout-out to Dr. Anna Fagre and our partners in the Kading laboratory!

Ebel laboratory alumni Claudia Rückert was recently featured on the This Week in Virology podcast. She talks with guests Dave AuCoin, Cyprian Rossetto, and Subhash Verma about their careers and their work on herpesviruses, arboviruses, and the development of diagnostics for infectious diseases.

With big thanks to host Vincent Racaniello!

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.

Ebel lab alumni Dr. Joseph Fauver has been featured in the Omaha World-Herald after naming a newly-discovered virus in honor of his late canine companion, Renna. From the article:

“As a graduate student at Colorado State University, Springfield native Joseph Fauver helped discover seven new kinds of mosquito viruses while researching the Zika virus in Mexico in 2016. When he and his girlfriend put their dog Renna to sleep last summer, the 28-year-old Washington University research scientist named one of those viruses in her honor.

“It’s the best scientific achievement I have,” Fauver said.”

Learn more about Renna by visiting the Good News section of the Omaha World-Herald. Dr. Fauver’s work on rRNA depletion is featured in the February 2019 issue of Virology. With thanks to World-Herald staff writer Chris Peters.