FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2020
Contact: Jason Hogue, Director of Marketing and Communications, 402-872-2429
Peru Nebraska- Peru State College class of 2013 graduate Dr. Joseph “Seph” Fauver is working on tracking Covid-19 at the Yale School of Public Health.
Fauver is part of a research team using genome sequencing to track the virus’ spread. He was quoted in a recent New York Times article covering scientists’ work tracing the virus.
Fauver received his B.S. in Natural Science at Peru State College, where he worked in Dr. Rich Clopton’s lab studying parasites found in cockroaches.
He obtained a Ph.D. in medical entomology and virology at Colorado State University, which he finished in 2017. During his time at Colorado State University, Fauver helped discover several new kinds of mosquito viruses, one of which he named in honor of his late dog, Renna. Fauver’s discovery was featured in the Omaha World Herald in January last year.
Fauver went on to be a postdoctoral researcher with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where he researched onchocerciasis and lymphatic filaraisis, diseases that are spread by blood-feeding insects. Fauver looked at ways to improve disease surveillance strategies through studying mosquitos in field trials. In the lab, Fauver studied the genomes of filarial worms, a type of roundworm known to cause lymphatic filariasis.
As a postdoctoral researcher at Yale, Fauver’s focus is on incorporating genomics into surveillance systems for diseases spread by blood-feeding insects and tracking travelers in the Caribbean to trace outbreaks of these diseases. He also teaches global health-related courses with the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale.
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