1. A metagenomic perspective on ecology,
biosecurity, and public health
Joshua Batson
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Catalyst Conference
February 22, 2020

2. Case Study 1: California

3. Characters...
● Alameda County, CA
● The tree of life
● Public databases
● Citizen science
● Viral evolution
● Wuhan, China
● Balloons
● Mosquitoes

4. Mosquitoes vector disease
West Nile Virus Malaria parasite
(Plasmodium falc.)

5. Mosquito control in the Bay Area

6. Mosquito control in the Bay Area

7. Homogenize, extract RNA, and sequence
52 million reads
per mosquito

8. What do the sequences mean?

9. What do the sequences mean?
Orthomyxovirus

10. Every mosquito contains multitudes

11. Including evidence of their blood meals

12. ...and of the blood meal’s pathogens

13. Citizen scientist observations confirm sequence

14. A complete viral genome can be assembled from
just 100 reads from one mosquito

15. Metagenomics is quickly revealing the virome
Li et al, eLife, 2015

16. Our one study had 50 novel viral genomes

17. Wuhan Mosquito Virus 6 - discovered in 2015

18. Wuhan Mosquito Virus 6 - recent sweep?

19. Where is it? Where is it going?
? ?

20. Can viruses be used to track mosquitos?

21. Metagenomics is a powerful tool for the
detection and surveillance of living
things.
Who gets to use it? To what end?

22. Compare facial recognition

23. Case Study 2: Dhaka

24. Diagnosing Encephalitis in Dhaka

25. Chikungunya detected in cerebrospinal fluid

27. Contributors
Peter Kim
Joe DeRisi
Steve Quake
Maira Phelps
Cristina Tato
Amy Kistler
Kalani Ratnasiri
Annie Lo
Hanna Retallack
Calla Martyn
Natalie Whitis
Norma Neff
Rene Sit
Michelle Tan
Josh Batson
Gytis Dudas
Amy Kistler
Lucy Li
Phoenix Logan
Rebecca Egger
Mark Zhang
Charles De Bourcey
Yun-Fang Juan
Eric Haas-Stapleton
@thebasepoint

28. What are the potential benefits of
widespread metagenomic sequencing
for your community?
What are the risks?

29. Bonus: Dark Matter