Introduction to the West Nile Virus Problem Space

As an emerging disease in the public eye, WNV continues to generate scientific interest as well. Researchers are exploring questions about its origin, evolution, transmission by multiple vectors and host tissues, replication in multiple hosts, viremic period, viral loads, seroconversion and antibody production, detection, vaccine potential, etc. Central to these investigations are the use of molecular data including nucleic acid sequences and the use of bioinformatics.

There are multiple ways this data can be used in courses. Other instructors have used West Nile Virus to:

• Help students become familiar with Biology Workbench, including the use of Nucleic Acid Tools such as ClustalW and SixFrame as well as Alignment Tools such as DrawGram, BoxShade, and MView, etc.
• Locate and download sequence data on line using Biology WorkBench, NCBI, and more. Edit the sequences for comparing sequence data obtained from multiple sources and/or for making shorter labels.
• Learn more about the West Nile Virus, including structure of the virus, transmission cycle, replication cycle, viremia, blood titers and the disease in reservoir and incidental hosts, vectors for virus, natural history in the US and around the world, and testing for WNV.

See the Background page for more information about the virus.

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