Arbovirus Research Consortium

• Project title: Pathway to Scale: A Feasibility Study on the uses of Zika Point-of-Care Diagnostic Tests
• Timeline: July 1, 2020- June 30, 2021
• Funder: UNICEF
• Faculty lead: Dr. Chu
• Funding amount: $696,308
• Project overview: To coordinate a harmonized diagnostic test implementation strategy scaled to meet regional specifications. While the global community diverts much-needed resources to COVID-19, routine arboviral disease surveillance efforts and other public health efforts can be negatively affected. This is why we believe that now is the opportune time to address and evaluate the integration of various point-of-care use cases for Zika and other arbovirus diseases for rapid test turnaround time and reduce resource needs to maintain surveillance and monitor potential Zika re-emergence. We have been selected by UNICEF to pilot a study using validated POC rapid tests in Africa, Southeast Asia sites, and collaborate with the Pan American Health Organization in Latin America sites. Our project’s objectives are to provide a scalable and sustainable framework for conducting operational feasibility studies, to assess the test kits usability and operationality in real-world settings and to generate data to assess the market value and adoption of the POC tests by the pilot countries.

This project is an ongoing EC-funded project coordinated by Thomas Jaenisch out of Heidelberg University Hospital. University of Colorado will be added as a partner. The focus of the project is on harmonization and data sharing for cohort data, using Arbovirus clinical observational data as pilot and for methods development. The European Commission asked the partners to add an additional work package on COVID-19 research, focusing on harmonization of COVID-19 cohort data and data sharing. The Center of Global Health will be involved in the harmonization of COVID-19 clinical data sets as well as seroprevalence data sets.

ZIKAlliance is a multinational and multi-disciplinary research consortium comprised of 54 partners worldwide and coordinated by Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. ZIKAlliance is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The project will investigate clinical, fundamental, environmental and social aspects of ZIKV infection. In particular, ZIKAlliance will focus on the impact of ZIKV infection during pregnancy and the natural history of ZIKV in humans and their environment. In collaboration with two other EC funded consortia (ZikaPLAN and ZIKAction), ZIKAlliance will also work on the development of a preparedness platform in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Project title: Towards an African platform for congenital malformations and birth defects
• Project goals: To demonstrate the feasibility of collecting baseline data on the frequency of congenital anomalies in rural Africa, including on the variability of head circumference measurements.
• Faculty: Dr. Thomas Jaenisch is a co-investigator
• Funder: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Pilot Grant

• Project title: Expanding xenosurveillance capabilities in central America
• Timeline: June 20 through May 22                            
• Funder: NIAID-NIH
• Faculty lead: Drs. Ebel, Olson, Lamb
• Funding amount: $275,000
• Project overview: The goal of this project is to validate the use of Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes for xenosurveillance and to determine its performance compared to longitudinal and cross-sectional syndromic surveillance approaches in rural central America. In this proposal we seek to further our efforts to use mosquitoes as blood sampling devices for surveillance in hard-to-reach, resource poor environments. We will implement this study at the CU Center for Human Development field site, in rural Guatemala. The study will compare detection of pathogens in mosquitos, humans, and domesticated animals, using active syndromic surveillance (fever, rash, arthralgia), PCR, and next gen sequencing. The project will also include laboratory studies of the efficiency of common tropical mosquitoes as blood samplers. If successful, our project could make surveillance in the tropics, where many new diseases emerge, (a) easier because painful sampling of humans is minimized and (b) safer by reducing the contact of veterinarians with fearful and angry animals.

• Project overview: This DOD grant funds ongoing research that develops and tests live-attenuated flavivirus vaccine candidates by targeting conserved RNA structures in the 3’ untranslated region of emerging flaviviruses. This grant will provide proof-of-concept support to develop dengue and Powassan vaccine candidates and test these candidates in murine models of disease for immunogenicity and protection from virus challenge. 
• Funder: Our current DOD Award was preliminary scored and expected to receive expansion award funding through 2024.
• Faculty leads: Drs. J. David Beckham and Jeff Kieft
  

• Project title: West Nile virus control through mosquitocidal avian bloodmeals
• Timeline: October 2020-September 2025                           
• Funder: NIH/NIAID
• Faculty leads: PI: Brian Foy, PhD, co-PI Greg Ebel, ScD.
• Funding amount: $3,044,860
• Project overview: West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, and the leading cause of domestically acquired arboviral disease in the United States, resulting in significant disease and death every year among humans and other animals. Efficacious, vector-targeted interventions are critically needed, but current vector control methods (primarily insecticides sprayed into the environment) have been inadequate for WNV control. We have been developing and testing stations that contain endectocide-treated bird feed as a way to control WNV transmission to humans in the western U.S., the region which suffers from the highest incidence WNV disease in North America, by targeting the primary bridge vector mosquito, Culex tarsalis. This project is designed to develop endectocide-treated birdfeed as a novel, safe and scientifically-validated way to control the risk of West Nile virus transmission to humans in the western U.S. The concept is that birds will self-medicate by birdfeed stations containing the treated feed, which would be placed as arrays on homeowners’ properties, in neighborhoods or in parks. The blood of treated birds would then kill the primary mosquito vectors of West Nile virus that blood feed on them, which would lower the risk of West Nile virus transmission to people who live, work and recreate around the birdfeed stations.