Laith Q. Al-Mawsawi

TL;DR: This study develops a single-nucleotide resolution genetic approach to interrogate the fitness effect of point mutations in 98% of the amino acid positions in the influenza A virus hemagglutinin (HA) gene, and provides a reference to identify indispensable regions to aid in drug and vaccine design.

TL;DR: A high-throughput screening method utilizing error-prone PCR and next-generation sequencing to comprehensively screen NA genes for H274Y compensatory mutations, which has the potential to profile a gene at the single-nucleotide level to comprehend the dynamics of mutation space and fitness and thus offers prediction power for emerging mutant species.

TL;DR: This high-resolution profiling methodology will be useful for next-generation drug development to select drugs with higher fitness costs to resistance, and also for informing the rational use of drugs based on viral variant spectra from patients.

TL;DR: This work developed a systematic approach to identify the functional residues of a viral protein by coupling experimental fitness profiling with protein stability prediction using the influenza virus polymerase PA subunit as the target protein.

TL;DR: The approach presented here can be applied to any pathogen that can be genetically manipulated in a laboratory setting and utilized under externally applied selection conditions, such as drug or immune pressure, to identify genetic elements that contribute to drug or host interactions, and therefore mutational routes of pathogen resistance and escape.