Co-organized by Seemay Chou of UC San Francisco and Andrea Swei of San Francisco State University, the Arthropod-borne Diseases in the Age of Quantitative Biology Symposium will be held at Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco on June 18-19, 2019.  Under the leadership of Dr. Nevan Krogan, the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) seeks transformative results in biomedicine by supporting fundamental quantitative research in the biological sciences. In support of this mission, the symposium will focus on challenges and opportunities in vector-borne disease research, with the goal of bringing together diverse perspectives ranging from disease ecology to mechanisms of pathogenesis.

AGENDA:

Day 1: June 18, 2019

9:00-9:15 Opening remarks by B. Joseph Guglielmo, Professor and Dean, UCSF School of Pharmacy

Session I: Pathogenesis of Arthropod-borne Microbes

 9:15 Priya Shah, UC Davis

“Understanding flavivirus replication and pathogenesis through comparative protein-protein interaction mapping”

 9:45 Ellen Yeh, Stanford

“1 1=1: targeting endosymbiosis for antimalarial drug discovery”

10:15 Ana Sesma, Mount Sinai

“High-dimensional analysis of dengue virus infections in human systems reveals distinct viral signatures”

 10:45-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 Michal Caspi Tal, Stanford

“Immune profiling reveals a role for CD47 mimicry by Borrelia”

 11:45 Ravinder Sehgal, SFSU 

“Avian malaria and the evolution of pathogenicity”

 12:30-1:30 Lunch Panel with Patricia Rosa, Don Ganem, Wendy Adams

(Hosted by Seemay Chou and Andrea Swei)

Session II: Investigating Vector–Pathogen Interactions

 2:00 Joao Pedra, University of Maryland

“Transkingdom Intercommunication at the Vector-Host Interface”

 2:30 Jane E. Koehler, UCSF

“Molecular adaptation of Bartonella quintana to its human and louse niches”

 3:00 Raul Andino, UCSF

“Antiviral immunity in insects: mechanisms, regulation and self-nonself discrimination”

 3:30-4:00 Break

 4:00-5:00 Keynote: Patricia Rosa, NIH/Rocky Mountain Labs

“Internal and external factors shaping the pathogenic potential of the Lyme disease spirochete”

 

 Day 2: June 19, 2019

Session III: Discovery of Arthropod-borne Pathogens

 9:00 Seemay Chou, UCSF

“Friend or foe? How ticks navigate diverse microbes”

 9:30 Amy Kistler, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub

"IDSeq: an open source web portal for unbiased mNGS analysis of arthropods"

 10:00 Shannon Bennett, California Academy of Sciences

“The Evolution and Emergence of Arboviruses: Jungle Genomics reveals New Insights”

 10:30-11:00 Coffee Break 

 

Session IV: Epidemiology and Diagnostics of Arthropod-borne Pathogens

 11:00 Charles Chiu, UCSF

“Development of ‘omics based diagnostic tests for Lyme disease and other tickborne infections using machine learning and CRISPR-Cas12a”

 11:30 Vicki Kramer, CDPH

“Epidemiology and ecology of West Nile virus in California: Long-term trends”

12:00-1:30 Poster Session and Lunch Break 

 

Session V: Ecology of Arthropod–Pathogen Relationships

 1:30 Andrea Swei, SFSU

“Biotic and abiotic drivers of the tick microbiome: implications for pathogen transmission”

 2:00 Manu Prakash, Stanford

“Community based, planetary-scale high-throughput surveillance tools for insect-parasite ecology in field settings”

 2:30-3:00 Coffee Break 

 

Session VI: Arthropod Vector Biology and Control

 3:00 Jason Rasgon, Penn State

“Wolbachia for vector-borne disease control: Promises and Problems”

 3:30 Greg Lanzaro, UC Davis

“Mosquito population modification and the malaria eradication agenda”

 4:00 John Marshall, UC Berkeley

“Can malaria, dengue and Zika be controlled by CRISPR-based gene drive? Insights from mathematical models”

 4:30 Geoffrey Attardo

“Unraveling the relationship between the Tsetse fly and its obligate symbiont Wigglesworthia: Transcriptomic and metabolomic landscapes reveals highly integrated physiological network”

 5:00-5:15 closing remarks by Seemay Chou and Andrea Swei

Confirmed Speakers:

Raul Andino, UC San Francisco

Geoff Attardo, UC Davis

Shannon Bennett, California Academy of Sciences

Charles Chiu, UC San Francisco

Seemay Chou, UC San Francisco

Jane E. Koehler, UCSF

Amy Kistler, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub

Vicki Kramer, California Department of Public Health

Gregory Lanzaro, UC Davis

John Marshall, UC Berkeley

Joao Pedra, University of Maryland

Manu Prakash, Stanford University

Jason Rasgon, Pennsylvania State University

Patricia Rosa, NIH/NIAID

Ravinder Sehgal, San Francisco State University

Ana Sesma, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Priya Shah, UC Davis

Andrea Swei, San Francisco State University

Michal Caspi Tal, Stanford University

Ellen Yeh, Stanford University