EBOLA: Deadly Mutations

Project Overview
Ebola viruses are responsible for causing Ebola virus disease (EVD) in humans and other primates. This viral disease is also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) and has affected thousands of people across the world, particularly in Africa. The reason for Africa being the most affected region in the world is attributed to its proximity to wild animals such as bats and primates. During the 2014 – 2016 epidemic outbreak in Africa “Next-generation sequencing” data was leveraged to trace the epidemic. In this project, you will learn how to use Next-generation sequencing data to monitor pandemics. You will also learn to employ bioinformatic approaches to analyze genomic sequences, identify particular viruses in patients samples through the identification of significant variants, determine the relationship between viruses, identify shared origins of viral genomes (phylogenetic analysis) and identify a connection between genomic variation and disease phenotype. We will also use confirmed reference genomes of the recent Ebola virus outbreak for data analysis.