 |
 |
Hello everyone,
It is time for the election of the members of the board of the Global Ranavirus Consortium! I would like to thank all of those who volunteered to run for these positions, bringing their energy, ideas, and enthusiasm for international collaborations.
The GRC is entirely run by volunteers. If you get a chance, please extend your thanks to these people.
Below please find short bios for each candidate for each position. (Note that we were never able to identify a person to be the Europe + Africa Representative, but hopefully the new board can find someone soon.) You can then cast your vote
at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GW5D3W5
I will close the election September 3 at 5PM Pacific time (UTC−07:00) and announce the results soon after.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Jesse
Jesse Brunner (he/his)
Webmaster, past-director, past-associate director the Global Ranavirus Consortium
Associate Professor
School of Biological Sciences
Washington State University
283 Eastlick Hall / PO Box 644236
Pullman, WA 99164 USA
509-335-3702
GRC elections
Director
Jacques Robert, PhD, is Professor and Vice Chair in the department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Professor in the department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, New York, USA. He is the Director
of the Xenopus research resource for Immunobiology, the world's most comprehensive facility specializing in the use of this species for immunological research. He is the Advisor for the Undergraduate Program in Biological Sciences and Microbiology, the founding
director of the Master of Science program in Immunology, Microbiology and Virology, the director of the Immunology graduate training programs, and the Co-director of Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), preparing predoctoral students from underrepresented
groups to pursue scientific careers. He has mentored many postgraduate, graduate and undergraduate students.
Dr. Robert and his team are interested in developmental and evolutionary aspects of immune surveillance microbial and antiviral immunity using the amphibian, Xenopus, as an experimental organism. Notably, the Robert lab has established
Xenopus as the leading model for studying the role of amphibian host immune defenses in controlling infection, pathogenicity, persistence and transmission of the prototypic ranavirus Frog virus 3 (FV3). The Robert lab is also investigating long-term effects
of water pollutants on immune cell development and on immune homeostasis and antiviral immunity across the lifespan.
Given his various leadership roles, and as an active member of the initial cross-disciplinary group who linked infectious diseases to the global amphibian decline and a founding member of the GRC, Dr. Robert has the experience, expertise
and vision to lead the GRC for the next few years. Among the challenges facing the GRC, he plans to focus on increasing and diversifying its membership as well as its visibility internationally. Besides promoting inclusiveness, he intends to develop educational,
training and outreach activities of the GRC. He will need, and ask for, the support and help of everyone to achieve these goals.
Associate Director
Leon Grayfer, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the George Washington University (District of Columbia, USA). He earned his PhD in comparative immunology and fish macrophage biology at the University
of Alberta (Alberta, Canada). Leon’s postdoctoral work at the University of Rochester (New York, USA) centered on amphibian innate immunity. The primary focus of the current research in the Grayfer lab is deciphering the evolutionarily converged and divergent
pathways of amphibian immune cell development and how these mechanisms affect these animals’ antimicrobial and antiviral responses. As Associate Director of the GRC, Leon would like to promote engagement, exchange of ideas and collaborations amongst the GRC
members and increase interactions between the GRC and other individuals and groups studying pathogens and immune defenses of cold-blooded vertebrates.
Secretary-Treasurer
Joe Mihaljevic, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University, USA, where his lab focuses on developing epidemiological modeling techniques to understand how the environment affects pathogen transmission. Joe has worked
with ranaviruses since graduate school, and his lab currently conducts field and lab work to understand temperature’s role in regulating the transmission of ATV among larval salamanders. Joe looks forward to more formally working with the GRC as Secretary-Treasurer.
Webmaster
Danna Schock, Ph.D., is an environmental consultant in Athabasca, Alberta, Canada. Previously, she was a professor at Keyano College (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada) and Curator of Amphibians at the Detroit Zoo (Michigan, USA). She is interested
in the ecology of ranaviruses, particularly those of amphibians. Her research experiences with these pathogens have included extensive lab and field studies. Current projects examine the dynamics of ranavirus infections in amphibian populations in industrially
disturbed areas of the boreal forests of northern Alberta, Canada. She is also active in promoting the principles and techniques associated with field hygiene to prevent the spread of pathogens and invasive species propagules among wetlands, frequently making
presentations to practitioners of biology and environmental science including professional consultants, government biologists, and citizen science organizations. As GRC Webmaster, she hopes to connect with GRC members, contribute to raising the visibility
and profile of the GRC, and facilitate the work of the GRC Board.
Asia Representative
Jayampathi Herath (Jay) is a Ph.D. student attached to Guangxi University, China. Currently he is involved in investigating the disease ecology of ranaviruses in ectothermic vertebrates of Guangxi region, China. He completed both MSc and
BSc degrees in Sri Lanka and served as a lecturer in Parasitology for medical undergraduate students at the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (Sri Lanka). As representative he would like to enhance the awareness of ranaviruses in Asia and develop
collaborations in order to improve surveillance, research, and decisions in policy making.
Dr. Preeyanan Sriwanayos is an aquatic veterinary researcher at the Department of Fisheries, Thailand. She completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary
Medicine (USA) under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas B. Waltzek in 2020. Her PhD research focused on the detection, genomic characterization, and risk analysis of ranaviruses in Asian aquatic industries. She also developed improved diagnostics assays (e.g., quantitative
PCR and in situ hybridization) to track the spread of Tiger Frog Virus (TFV) in the region. Her main research interests include understanding of the transmission dynamics, epidemiology, and the management of TFV disease in cultured and wild populations of
ectothermic vertebrates.
Australia Representative
Wytamma Wirth, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne, Australia. During his undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at James Cook
University (Australia), Wytamma found an appreciation for the complexity of biology and developed an interest in microbiology. After completing his undergraduate degree, Wytamma undertook an honours project in which he studied the link between the immune system
and behaviour in reptiles with ranaviral infections. Following the completion of his honours project, Wytamma began his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Ellen Ariel. His project focused on determining factors that influence ranaviral pathogenesis,
and describing the distribution of ranaviral infection in Australian freshwater turtles. Wytamma has a broad set of research interests and has recently changed fields into computational biology and phylodynamics (but plans to return to the pipette soon).
North America Representative
Anna Savage, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Central Florida (USA). She earned her B.A. in Biology at Amherst College (USA), her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University,
(USA) and did her postdoctoral training as a Molecular Evolution Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Conservation Genomics (USA). Dr. Savage’s research program investigates the evolutionary processes driving infectious diseases
of amphibians and reptiles, with an emphasis on host and pathogen genomic changes that alter disease virulence and drive population outcomes. The Savage lab works on a number of disease systems in Florida, including chytridiomycosis, Perkinsea, and Ranavirus
in frogs, fibropapillomatosis in sea turtles, upper respiratory tract disease in gopher tortoises, and microbial pathogens in Florida scrub jays. Savage's lab group also works on wildlife genetics and disease at a broader spatial scale, with active amphibian
projects currently based throughout the United States and in Ecuador. As a member of the GRC board, Savage is interested in enhancing knowledge on co-infection dynamics between Ranavirus and other pathogens, particularly in the context of amphibian immune
function.
South + Central America Representative
Dr. Joice Ruggeri completed her Ph.D. in Zoology at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro (MN/UFRJ; Brazil) in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Sergio Potsch Carvalho-e-Silva (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ) and Dr. Luís Felipe
Toledo (State University of Campinas – UNICAMP). Her research concentrated on the dynamics of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in the anuran assemblage of Serra dos Órgãos mountain range in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She was then a postdoctoral research associate
in Dr. Toledo’s Lab at Unicamp, Brazil working on ranavirus infection in amphibians in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, a region considered a hotspot for Bd diversity. She found Ranavirus to be widespread in the region and reported a die-off of invasive bullfrog
tadpoles associated with this virus, representing the first report of the virus outside bullfrog farms in Brazil. She also worked with Dr. Trenton Garner from the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, UK, to investigate the consequences of coinfection
with Bd and Ranavirus on the amphibian host. In addition to her often highly collaborative research, she has also worked extensively on publish outreach, translating the importance of amphibian conservation and pathogens monitoring into a more popular language.
She helped organize public events such as “Save the Frogs” in Michigan (2015) and in Brazil (2017), and the workshop “Regulamentação da ranicultura brasileira e a conservação de anuros nativos” (2019) in which members of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock
and Food Supply (MAPA) of Brazil, bullfrog farm owners, and scientists, including graduate students and university professors, discussed frog farming in Brazil and means to avoid disease spread, pathogen introduction, and bullfrog escapes. As representative,
she would like to create a regional (all Central and South America) or local online workshops with people from science, ranaculture, and governments to be held before the International Symposium on Ranavirus; facilitate data sharing (e.g., among field herpetologists,
veterinarians, farm owners, nature reserve managers, and governments) to identify the current distribution and diversity of Ranavirus in Central and South America; create local guides (print or online) in Portuguese/Spanish on how to recognize some of the
clinical signs of ranavirus infection to be distributed for free in bullfrog farms and for field scientists, like herpetologists and ichthyologists; among many other ideas.