Information Gathering

Having the theme decided, we started gathering information by not just reading, but also by interviewing a former patient who was infected in the Philippines and discussing with a flavivirus researcher Professor Nukuzuma. We found out the following.

1) Around the world, 4 million people are infected annually, causing the economic loss of more than $40 million. 

2) Previously, dengue virus can be categorized into four categories but another new serotype has just been found. Being infected by one serotype leads to slight fever, but being infected by more than one serotypes can lead to a severe illness.

3) There are four types of vaccine to prevent the four serotypes. However, the vaccine can cause severe illness for some people who have not been infected before.

4) The annual infection ratio of each serotype changes in roughly 10 years cycle in some areas. 

We who gathered these information thought of connecting the modeling (dry lab) to predict infection experience and its serotype, and the experiment (wet lab) to collect many data with specific serotype information. We believe this may help prevent severe dengue fever and improve the efficacy of treatment.

Dengue virus is unique in terms of its four different serotypes. Multiple infection can easily cause severe dengue, appearing hemorrhage and organ damage. It is important to grasp which serotype the patient is infected, however, there is not enough data about each serotype in a year.

To tackle the situation, we took the following two approaches.

In the future, this system can contribute to other flavivirus detection system.