West Nile Virus—a potentially deadly infection spread by mosquito bites—is now a permanent resident of Arizona, according to a study by Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope.
Crystal Hepp, an assistant professor at NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, is the lead author on the study, which analyzed the genetic material of West Nile Virus (WNV) directly from mosquitos collected in Arizona to build out a genomic family tree of the virus. Researchers then used advanced computer algorithms to develop a theoretical model of how the virus moves around the American Southwest. Read more