Teams Tackle Virus Puzzle

The Hub’s top infectious disease researchers are gearing up to take on the mysterious Zika virus, an illness with a potential link to devastating birth defects that’s raging across the Americas.

Local scientists are launching two new initiatives — one to study the virus’s genetic makeup — aiming to uncover new information that could lead to treatments and even a vaccine.

“We have a Zika response team now,” said Dr. Pardis Sabeti, a geneticist with Harvard’s Broad Institute. “Genomics can let us understand what all is out there to help us develop diagnostics and vaccines and therapies.”

The virus has caused panic among pregnant women who have traveled to areas of infection. It is suspected to cause microcephaly, a birth defect characterized by abnormally small heads and under-developed brains.

Though it spreads through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue and chikungunya, the virus has been detected in saliva, urine and semen.