Guten Tag!
These past
few weeks at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin have been fantastic, and we
have had some great results so far. We have been able to characterize the
Mustelid herpesviruses in different badger populations as intended, and have
now turned our focus to cytomegaloviruses (CMV) found in Gorillas.
We have
been using PCR to analyze gorilla samples to detect the presence of CMV, followed
by next generation sequencing to look at the variants of the virus in different
gorilla populations. Bioinformatics software packages can be complicated to get
used to, but I think they are valuable tools for anyone interested in
post-graduate research; if you get the chance to explore these during your 3rd
year project, I would definitely recommend it.
Kati
Above: Gorilla samples positive
for CMV
(You can read Kati's first blog from Berlin posted on June 13th.)
(You can read Kati's first blog from Berlin posted on June 13th.)
