Homepage

CIPHER is a university-wide research center with constituents from the College of Computing and Informatics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Health and Human Services, and the College of Education. Our goals are to coalesce expertise in computer science, bioinformatics, software and information systems, biological sciences, math, geography, public health, data science, education, and communications.

Inside the Race to Track and Stop the Spread of Avian Flu

In a paper published last month, Janies, a distinguished professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, found that current avian flu strains are evolving to escape mammalian immune responses. “These results indicate that the virus has potential to move from epidemic to pandemic status,” the researchers said.

Antibodies, which are immune proteins that fight infection, now have decreased binding ability for the more recent viral strains, which means a worrying possibility of spread among humans, according to the findings.

Read the full story

Luo Lab awarded a new grant from the National Science Foundation

Biological Sciences Professor and Researcher, Dr. Elaine Luo was awarded $699k from NSF for a project to study the “Viral impacts on microbial carbon cycling at deep-sea hydrothermal vents“. This project aims to identify the diversity, mechanisms, and rates of virus-induced carbon cycling in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent system (Axial Seamount). While chemoautotrophic microbes are known to contribute to these hotspots of primary productivity, the functional role and biogeochemical impacts of viruses that infect them remain critical gaps in our understanding of
the dark ocean’s carbon cycle. Read the full abstract here.

“de-CIPHERing Infectious Disease”

explores the cutting-edge interdisciplinary research happening at UNC Charlotte’s CIPHER Research Center. Each episode features an in-depth interview with one of CIPHER’s researchers, allowing them to discuss their background, current projects, and the exciting team science approach they take to tackle complex issues at the intersection of health, environment, data science, genomics, infectious disease, and more.