Speaker: Xiu-Feng “Henry” Wan, PhD, Professor Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science 

Date:  Tuesday, Feb 14, 2023, noon-1 p.m.
Location: Tom and Linda Atkins Family Seminar Room, Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building

*Zoom option available

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Description

SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotic virus with bi-directional transmission between people and animals documented. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to free-ranging animals, however, poses a unique public health risk because current research suggests the potential for reservoir establishment where variants may persist and evolve. In this presentation, Dr. Wan will provide an overview of our current understanding of the roles of free-ranging animals in zoonosis and reverse zoonosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

About the Speaker

Dr. Wan is a veterinarian and was uniquely trained in both microbiology and computational biology. After his graduate trainings, Dr. Wan had his first postdoc training in functional genomics in Oak Ridge National Laboratory and his second one in computational biology at University of Missouri. Dr. Wan is currently a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, veterinary pathobiology, and electrical engineering and computer science at University of Missouri. He directs the NextGen Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases at MU. Before joining Missouri, Dr. Wan was an assistant, associate and full professor at Mississippi State University (2009-2019), a senior service fellow in the Influenza Division of the Centers for Disease Control (2007-2009) and an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at Miami University (2005-2007). Dr. Wan’s research efforts are focused on influenza and SARS-CoV-2 risk assessment, transmission, pathogenesis and vaccine/vaccination by integrating laboratory, clinical and computational methods. Over his career, Dr. Wan has made contributions to understanding the ecology and evolution of influenza viruses and to improving influenza vaccine strain selection. He identified A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 (H5N1), the precursor virus causing current H5N1 bird flu threat, during his earlier graduate study in China. Dr. Wan has published over 170 peer reviewed papers and received more than $30 million in extramural grant supports from various funding federal agents such as NIH, NSF, DOJ and USDA. Dr. Wan serves as an editorial board member for Clinical Infectious Diseases and a guest editor for PLoS Pathogens.