Featuring John W. Hessler, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, director and founder

of the λ-LAB (Lambda-Lab); in conversation with Arthur Dunkelman, curator, Jay I. Kislak Collection, University Libraries. 

Thursday, May 25, 2023, 1 p.m. (EDT)

 

John W. Hessler explores new computational and mapping techniques that combine the more than fourteen million genomic sequences that have been generated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with advanced geospatial analysis, to retrospectively map the first spillover events and the early spread of the SARS-CoV-2 to Europe and the United States.

Zoonotic viruses like SARS-CoV-2, HIV and Ebola are strange creatures. They are not really alive, at least in the normal sense, but are only sequences of genetic code, marking time in the cells of a passive animal reservoir, until they spillover, begin moving and replicating, thereby making their presence felt. All of us have become familiar in recent years with these facts, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus has come into all of our lives.

Hessler discusses in-depth what we have learned about the origins of the virus and its animal host, and show dynamic map visualizations of both our recent COVID-19 pandemic, and from the recent Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.