Merging Microfludics and Metagenomics for Novel High - throughout Virus Discovery

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Viral infections have a major impact on public health both domestically and worldwide. Consequently intense effort has been placed on the study of known human viral pathogens. However, it is likely that many diseases of unknown etiology are caused by viruses. Furthermore, new viral pathogens are constantly emerging. The ability to detect and identify novel human viruses is a major roadblock to understanding and curing diseases associated with these agents. We have developed a collaborative approach that combines the power of viral metagenomics with advances in microfluidics to allow the detection and isolation of individual viruses from complex biological samples. Here, metagenomics is the study of large populations of unknown viruses, while microfluidics is the application of micron size drops to isolate and assay single viruses at very high throughput. This application seeks support to broaden the types of viruses detected by this system and to apply it to the isolation and preliminary characterization of two novel viruses that potentially infect humans. The development of this platform will greatly enhance the ability to detect, isolate and thus rapidly characterize novel pathogens. The development of the microfluidics platform will provide emerging technology to the identification and study of heretofore unidentified viruses. This study will be the first effort to apply this technology to the identification of important new classes of viruses. This work represents a novel combination of two methods to advance the discovery process of new viruses that have a major impact on human health.