Researchers study Ebola issues using computer model
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is an issue that can seem far away from a place like Moscow, but for some University of Idaho researchers, it’s as close as a mouse click away.
Daphne Jackson | Argonaut
Michelle Wiest and Marty Ytreberg study computer models of Ebola issues in the Engineering Physics building Tuesday. Ytreberg recieved a $72,000 grant for his team’s research.
Two teams, both of which are part of UI’s Ebola Working Group, are working on two projects related to Ebola. One of these teams, led by UI faculty member and Faculty Senate Chair Marty Ytreberg, recently received a $72,000 one-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study the evolution of the Ebola virus through computer modeling.
“One of the things that we’re planning to do is look at the evolution that’s happened so far to see if we can understand some of the implications, specifically whether or not it affects the efficacy of the vaccine, or the natural immunity that people might have for the virus,” Ytreberg said.
He said the team would also study the potential future evolution of the virus to examine how it could develop over long spans of time. He said that process would include creating a list of possible changes that could indicate a prospective problem.
Ytreberg said the team would use the knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of a single protein in the Ebola virus — the one targeted by the antibodies in the vaccine that they are also studying — to predict the effects of changing the amino acids within the protein.
He said the accuracy of the predictions tends to depend on the size of the effect — predictions of a large disruption tend to be more accurate. He said the researchers hope to use a faster, less accurate prediction method to test every possible mutation, and a time consuming but more accurate method for a small group of amino acids.
The grant, funded though NSF’s Rapid Response Research program, is only one year long, which means the modelers have a quick turnaround time to finish the research and share the information, Ytreberg said.
“I think that anytime you’re funded by National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation — any places like that — the goal is to broadly disseminate the research findings,” he said. “So of course we’ll be looking to publish the results, but we’ll also … be contacting people like the World Health Organization.”
Michelle Wiest is leading the other team, which is working on modeling the Ebola epidemic at a human interaction level. She said modeling starts with figuring out what other researchers have already studied, and what to do to improve existing information.
“We keep our big picture in mind of what the question is that we’re trying to answer, because you can get bogged down in modeling,” she said. “We identify what the best approach is going to be –whether it’s existing mathematical models and just tweaking those or maybe it’s developing a new methodology to address the problem.”
Courtesy of Marty Ytreberg
A visual representation of Ebola virus the researchers have been studying.
Wiest said the Ebola Working Group has also participated in an international modeling coordination group that focuses on connecting modelers with decision makers like the World Health Organization and the World Bank to help share information with those who need it in a timely manner.
Ytreberg and Wiest are members of a university subset group known as the Collaboratorium for Modeling Complex Problems, which Ytreberg said was the original source of members for the Ebola Working Group.
Wiest, who is the director of the collaboratorium, found the grant information and brought it to the collaboratorium in October, where it soon became the first project attempted by members of the collaboratorium.
“It’s very relevant. It’s a good project to rally people around, because it is so relevant and interesting, and there’s so many opportunities,” she said. “So from there, we started coming up with ideas of how we can use our different expertise to tackle some of the issues around Ebola, we started this Ebola Working Group, Marty put in for this RAPID funding proposal and now we’ve got a funded project.”
Ytreberg said the projects have a local effect and he hopes the collaboratorium becomes a resource for research across the UI campus.
Wiest said the collaboratorium wants to engage students in its activities as well. She said one way the group would like to do this is through a journal club that explores ideas on Wednesdays.
“The theme right now is modeling Ebola, mostly because that’s where our heads are at, but the topics are going to evolve over the semester,” Wiest said.
Daphne Jackson can be reached at [email protected]