We will develop bioinformatic tools and utilize machine learning to recognize and characterize emerging viral pathogens. Traditional diagnostics often fail for atypical or new pathogens due to lack of sequence information. We will enhance metagenomics and "hypothesis-free" bioinformatic tools to identify both new and known viruses. This approach aids public and veterinary health responses until specific tests are developed. We aim to rapidly deploy these pipelines in clinical and field settings, use machine learning to predict viral structural changes, and to validate predicitions experimentally or at the population level. Our goal is to create rapid, open-access methods for surveying emerging viruses, addressing challenges in diagnostics and control of new pathogens.

2024