(2009-07-16) Wolfe Virus Hunter

Nathan Wolfe is hoping to prevent the next Pandemic by identifying viruses that are jumping from animals to humans before they become significant. Nathan's work will help us fill major gaps in our understanding of what viruses are coming out, on an almost real-time basis," says Mark Smolinksi, director of the new Predict And Prevent Initiative from GoogleOrg, the tech giant's philanthropic arm, which backs GVFI... Wolfe's discovery of simian foamy viruses in humans cementedhis reputation as a viral-epidemiologist wunderkind. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded him its prestigious Director's Pioneer Award in 2005. His findings also turned traditional thinking in epidemiology - which had held that transmission of retroviruses from animals to humans is rare - on its head. "The fact that we foundSFVs with such a small sample was the shocking thing," says Wolfe, "because it confirmed that viruses were passing from nonhumanprimates to humans on a fairly regular basis."... "I finally figured out that Coffee is a shitty drug-delivery system," he tells me. "It's not efficient, and the dosage isn't standardized." Now he toggles between the sleepaid Ambien and the antisleep drug Provigil. "Jet lag," he says, "is no longer a problem."... Then again, Wolfe could well have been high on the news that Google.org had just awarded GVFI a $5.5 million grant - Google's largest grant ever. The grant would be matched by another $5.5million from the Skoll Foundation, which backs the work of social entrepreneurs.... GVFI's approach is a combination of safe-hunting instruction and conservation education. Diffo encourages the hunters to focus on abundant animals, such as rodents; he reminds them that certain species are illegal to hunt; then he demonstrates how to wrap carcasses in either plastic or large palm fronds before cart-ing them home. And, since E Bola has been confirmed across the border in Congo, he advises the hunters to walk away from dead animals in the forest.