A screenshot from a Supramap study of avian influenza, with red lines representing the spread of drug-resistant strains and the white lines drug susceptible strains.

Credit: Ohio Supercomputing Center

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BRISBANE: Instead of simply focussing on human infections, infectious disease researchers can now track the complex interactions, movement and evolution of the pathogens themselves using supercomputers.

The researchers are using a new program called Supramap, which operates on the computing systems at Ohio State University and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

It incorporates geographic information systems technology so that scientists can see a family tree of different strains of a pathogen overlaid on Google Earth or other maps, according to a study in the journal Cladistics.

Studied H5N1 – avian flu

Evolutionary biologist Daniel Janies and his colleagues have tested the program by studying Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), several types of avian influenza and seasonal influenza.

They linked a particular genetic mutation in H5N1 avian influenza to the virus jumping from birds into mammals.

It is also being used to study a haemorrhagic virus attacking fish in the US and Canadian Great Lakes, and schistosomiasis infection in China.

Looking at pathogens in a new way

Researchers say they now understand whether mutations are more likely in certain hosts or geographic locations. They hope to use this information to predict where mutations are more likely to occur.

"The goal is to provide a common frame work for testing ideas on how complex interactions of animals, humans and the environment lead to the emergence of diseases," he said.

Other programs exist that map human cases by the appearance of symptoms, but Supramap is focussed on the pathogen itself, Janies said, looking especially at genetic data.

Linked to roads and animal migration

The researchers focus on the date and place the pathogen was isolated and align the information, highlighting genetic differences and making a family tree of the strains, showing which strains gave rise to others.

Now they can study features such as which strains carry a mutation, which are drug-resistant or what host the strain was found in, Janies said.