Aleksei A. Chmura

TL;DR: These results provide the strongest evidence to date that Chinese horseshoe bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV, and that intermediate hosts may not be necessary for direct human infection by some bat SL-CoVs, and highlight the importance of pathogen-discovery programs targeting high-risk wildlife groups in emerging disease hotspots.

TL;DR: H5N1 is more likely to be introduced into the Western Hemisphere through infected poultry and into the mainland United States by subsequent movement of migrating birds from neighboring countries, rather than from eastern Siberia.

TL;DR: It is found that alpha-CoVs have switched hosts more frequently than betaCoVs, and a bat family and genus that are highly involved in host-switching are identified, which define hotspots of CoV evolutionary diversity.

TL;DR: This report developed a specific ELISA based on the nucleocapsid protein of a SARSr-CoV strain and detected its antibody in humans who are highly exposed to bat populations and demonstrated the Sarsr- CoV had spillover to humans, although did not cause clinical diseases.

TL;DR: The results expand the understanding of the viromes of rodents and insectivores in China and suggest that there is high diversity of viruses awaiting discovery in these species in Asia.