NMR&D News
Volume IV, Issue 12
Kazakh Scientists Visit NMRC, Train on MLST Molecular Assays SILVER SPRING, Md. - Four scientists from Kazakhstan visited the Rickettsial Diseases Research Program laboratories at the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) in Silver Spring, Md., October 29November 9 for training on molecular assays, specifically multi-locus sequencing typing (MLST), from Dr. Allen Richards and his staff. The training was part of a collaboration with the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). As part of their mission to assess the risk of rickettsial diseases to military and civilian personnel worldwide, the Rickettsial Diseases Research Program trains individuals involved in regions that are endemic to rickettsial diseases. The trainees came from four different institutes in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Alexey Andryuchshenko came from the Uralsk Anti-Plague Station (UAPS), Uralsk; Talgat Nurmakhanov from the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Disease (KSCQZD), Almaty; and Gulnar Omasheva from the Scientific Practical Center for Sanitary Epidemiological Expertise and Monitoring (SEEM), Ministry of Health Committee on State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, Almaty. Lyazzat Musralina, a Kazakh scientist from AECOM, Almaty, accompanied the trainees from Kazakhstan.
Top row, from left: Gulnar Omasheva, Alexey Andryuchshenko, Sarah Pisarcik, Heidi St. John, Dr. Kenneth Yeh, Dr. Allen Richards, and Talgat Nurmakhanov. Bottom row, from left: Dr. Ekaterine Adeishvili, Lyazzat Musralina, and Dr. Ju Jiang. (PCR) and sequencing five different rickettsial genes (both conserved and variable genes), sequencing data
As part of their mission to assess the risk of rickettsial diseases to military and civilian personnel worldwide, the Rickettsial Diseases Research Program trains individuals involved in regions that are endemic to rickettsial diseases. Dr. Ju Jiang provided the Kazakh scientists with MLST training that included polymerase chain reaction
analysis, and the use of software and web tools. In addition to the Rickettsia-specific assays, Melissa
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Taylor provided training in the use of one of the genus-specific tick assays she developed to identify ticks common in Kazakhstan. They learned methods necessary to perform quantitative real-time PCR, perform standard and nested PCR to produce amplicons from target genes for use in sequencing, perform sequencing, analyze sequencing data, perform BLAST search and comparisons, and develop conclusions. Once back in their own laboratories, the Kazakh scientists will perform assays on local Kazakh tick samples to identify rickettsial and tick species and assess more fully the risk of rickettsial diseases throughout Kazakhstan.