News

New research from UNC Charlotte’s Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) has found that the two recent and prevalent strains of the virus that cause COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.2.86 and JN.1, are not significantly better than their predecessor Omicron at evading immune responses and causing infections despite having a high number of […]

Good news from the Reitzel lab. Undergraduate researcher and Honors student Rachel Showers was awarded the Derrick Griffith Servant Leader Award this year!  This award is awarded to one student per year and Rachel was selected. Rachel has been an incredible student researcher with us for about 2 years and engaged member of our university community. 

When Shirish Yasa was a 10 year-old kid attending educational summer camps at UNC Charlotte, he walked through the beautiful campus each day dreaming about what it’d be like to be a student at his hometown university. Read the full story

The College of Computing and Informatics selected Dr. Richard Allen White as the well deserved recipient of the 2024 Essam El-Kwae Student-Faculty Research Award. Dr. White, alongside students Madeline Bellanger and Jose Figueroa, has made contributions in the scientific community with the submission of seven papers within a span of 10 months. Five of these […]

🎉👨‍🎓 Congratulations, Dr. Alfred Hubbard! 👨‍🔬🌟 On May 21, 2024, Alfred Hubbard successfully defended his doctoral thesis, titled: “Genomic Epidemiology for Malaria: Novel Application of Geospatial Methods, New Genomic Markers, and Population-level Insights.” Alfred’s dedication, passion, and hard work have culminated in this remarkable achievement. His groundbreaking research represents a significant leap forward in our […]

CIPHER co-director Adam Reitzel and CIPHER member Juan Vivero-Escoto are the 2024 recipients of the First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal and the Harshini V. de Silva Graduate Mentor Award ! “Our faculty have led our ascent to top-tier research status, helping us serve our region and provide a top-quality education for Charlotte students,” said Chancellor Sharon L. […]

In a publication released this week, Dr. Colby T. Ford of the UNC Charlotte CIPHER Center and researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory showcased immense scalability in modeling the interaction of human cytokines against coronavirus nucleocapsid proteins using high-performance computing. Background Cytokines are small proteins that are responsible for modulating immune responses in the body, responding […]

In a recent study written by Madeline Bellanger and Dr. Richard Allen White III, published in the American Society for Microbiology’s Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal, the two scholars along with Dr. Pieter Visscher of the University of Connecticut demonstrated a new way to measure the levels of viruses in two major lakes in the […]

CIPHER Co-Director, Dr. Adam Reitzel was honored with several awards this year. He was named Faculty Fellow of Grant Writing in the UNC Charlotte Graduate and Postdoctoral Writing Center. As a Faculty Fellow, Reitzel will bring his exceptional scholarly writing experience to aid the development of grant writing talent among postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. He also […]

New research from UNC Charlotte’s Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) has found that the two most prevalent strains of the virus that cause COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.2.86 and JN.1, are not significantly better than their predecessor Omicron at evading immune responses and causing infections despite having a high number of mutations […]

The CHAsm Summit will highlight the importance of incorporating equity based practices into public, private and non-profit sector work to address disparities faced by communities, both physically and systemically.  Join us IN-PERSON or VIRTUALLY on Thursday April 4, 2024 for the CHAsm Summit: Closing Gaps on Disparities, Opening Paths for Equity. To learn more and […]

Daniel Janies, PH.D illustrates the biology of The spread of pathogens and our progress in making pandemic response more predictive. The lecture series: The Office of International Programs at UNC Charlotte coordinates a local community lecture series annually. The Charlotte Great Decisions Lecture Series consists of five weekly sessions and is an opportunity for citizens […]

Bats represent 25% of all the mammals on Earth, and are elite suppressors of highly pathogenic viruses, rarely develop cancer, and have very long lifespans relative to body size. T cells are essential in the long-term suppression of viruses and cancer via the adaptive immune system leading to limited disease and long lifespan. Fundamentally, T […]

Dr. Vieira visits Chapel Hill to give a talk at UNC’s Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases Rafael Felipe Da Costa Vieira, PhD, is an assistant professor of One Health in the Department of Public Health Sciences and CIPHER at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Vieira’s research focuses on the ecoepidemiology of ticks and tick-borne diseases […]

They may be small, but ticks are known as one of nature’s most feared vampires due to their transmission of illnesses like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Dr. Rafael Vieira, of CIPHER at UNC Charlotte, joined Charlotte Talks With Mike Collins to discuss Ticks and the various infectious diseases they carry and transmit. View […]

Chancellor Gaber released the Chancellor’s Annual Report 2022-2023. The video highlights the various ways that UNC Charlotte is climbing the ranks.

With tick populations expanding and numbers on the rise, WBTV interviewed Dr. Rafael Vieira at UNC’s CIPHER Center to learn more. View the story

A gene variant may explain why In people with the variant, past exposure to other coronaviruses may prep the immune system to fight off the disease; Read the full article….