February 10, 2023
2023-02-10T09:30:00
1011 Nichols Road
Monona, WI 53716
Free and open to the public
Scholarly Scoop: Monkeypox Bioinformatic Insights Into an Emerging Viral Pathogen
Friday, February 10, 2023
Please join us as Robert Kuzoff with the Biology and the Computer Science Department shares information on Monkeypox.
Historically, Monkeypox was endemic to Africa, but spread to London in 2022. Thereafter, the virus spread to 111 countries, yielding 85,000 cases worldwide. The Monkeypox genome evolves roughly 6 times faster than that of its closest relatives. To pinpoint the origin and epidemiological consequences of this elevated mutation rate, we will: (1) infer a phylogeny for Monkeypox and its relatives; (2) estimate dates for divergence events; and (3) compare rates and patterns of protein evolution across this viral lineage. These results may shed light on the abnormal rate of protein evolution and recent proliferation of Monkeypox outside Africa.
Robert Kuzoff, PhD, is an associate professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Biology at UW-Whitewater. He is also on the faculty of the Applied Biotechnology Masters Program through UW-Extended Campus and is the Director of the Bioinformatics and Data Science minors at UW-Whitewater.
Dr. Kuzoff’s primary research interest is medical bioinformatics. Researchers in his lab explore medically significant variation in the genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes of humans and their viral and bacterial pathogens.