In May of 2009, one of the species of monkeys housed in a facility at the University of California in Davis began falling ill, showing symptoms of pneumonia and hepatitis. Despite efforts to limit the spread of any infectious agent, a third of the monkeys eventually came down with the ailment; most of them died or had to be euthanized. Researchers have now identified the cause of the outbreak, a new species of a well-known virus family. Once they knew what to look for, they found evidence that the virus had been transmitted to one of the researchers at the facility and spread to one of his family members.
In the wake of the epidemic, researchers went looking for a cause using a DNA chip that can help identify sequences from a variety of pathogens. A number of viruses appeared to be present, but most weren't known to cause the symptoms exhibited by these monkeys, so the authors focused on one family that does: the adenoviruses. Sequencing DNA from samples of the lungs of infected monkeys eventually allowed the researchers to reconstruct parts of an adenovirus genome. Targeted cloning and sequencing then enabled them to reconstruct the whole virus.
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Megan Ewing Kristanna Loken Aubrey ODay Drew Barrymore Marley Shelton
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