Brian R. Wasik, Ph.D. Research Associate
I am currently a Research Associate at the Baker Institute for Animal Health and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. My focus is on emerging viruses across species, blending molecular virology with experimental evolution. I am concerned with the mechanisms of how virus populations evolve in response to complex environments.
Before coming to the Parrish Lab, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Department at Yale University with Dr. Paul E Turner. I received my Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Department of Biology at Indiana University – Bloomington with Dr. Richard W Hardy. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in Rolling Meadows, IL.
In the Parrish Lab, I have contributed to multiple projects:
1) The natural history and evolution of equine and canine influenza. While influenza A virus (IAV) is primarily an avian-specific pathogen, mammalian spillover and adaptation has marked significant health impacts to human populations. Yet other non-human animals have been host to IAV, including horses and dogs. Burdened by other influenza subtypes in the past, horses now host an H3N8 that emerged in the early 1960s (EIV). A worldwide virus marking nearly every continent, EIV has two primary clades (Florida 1 and 2) that circulate after diverging around 2002. Our work has found that FC1 is is driven by US circulation, giving rise to international transfers of the virus into sporadic outbreaks (e.g. Europe, South America, Middle East, Japan). EIV further caused a mammal-to-mammal spillover into dogs around 1999 to form the first sustained canine influenza virus in the molecular era (CIV H3N8). This virus was characterized by shelter-driven outbreaks in FL, CO, PA, NY and a few other states before becoming undetected after 2016. We hypothesize this lineage is now extinct. A unique spillover of an avian H3N2 also emerged into dogs ~2005 in mainland Asia. With continuous circulation of the virus in dogs on the Korean peninsula and mainland China, the virus has been found in North America (US and Canada) on multiple occasions due to international transport of dogs. This is an ongoing and diverse project that we summarize HERE.
2) Sialic acid diversity and viral hosts. With multiple collaborations, we have utilized a diverse toolkit of viral surface proteins re-purposed as probes for specific chemistries of the monosaccharide, sialic acid (Sia). This has allowed multiple studies that seek to survey the Sia diversity of cells and tissues of key hosts to viral pathogens (in addition to bacterial pathogens and cancer markers through collaborations). The identification of rare and species-specific Sia forms may underlie pathogen host and tissue tropisms.
3) The experimental evolution of influenza in response to receptor variation. Using both cell line systems and mice models, we have sought to evolve influenza A virus strains in environments that vary by Sia receptor chemistry. Through whole-genome deep sequencing, we can identify minority single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and how they arise and change in frequency during experimental replication. While some variants of Sia receptors (such as Neu5Gc, absent in humans) place weak selection on virus populations, our work investigates assumptions of virus population diversity – that the presence and stability of minority variants in a population is highly contingent on genetic background, even within one virus species.
4) Parvovirus interactions with the transferrin receptor (TfR). The emergence and evolution of canine parvovirus (CPV) was facilitated by viral adaptation to the canine TfR. Ongoing work in collaboration with Susan Hafenstein (PSU) has informed a structural framework for this specific interaction by cryoEM. Structural data further informs biochemical models which can be tested in the lab with engineered viral capsids and soluble TfR forms. We are currently working on newly engineered soluble TfR-Apical domains to further refine the footprint of CPV-TfR interaction that informs historical evolution, host range, and competition with antibody recognition.
Parrish Lab Publications:
Preprints
Wasik BR, Rothschild E, Voorhees IEH, Reedy SE, Murcia PR, Pusterla N, Chambers TM, Goodman LB, Holmes EC, Kile JC, Parrish CR (2023) Understanding the Divergent Evolution and Epidemiology of H3N8 Influenza Viruses in Dogs and Horses. biorxiv 10.1101/2023.03.22.533763v1
Peer-Reviewed
López-Astacio RA, Adu OF, Goetschius DJ, Lee H, Weichert WS, Wasik BR, Früh SP, Alford BK, Voorhees IEH, Flint JF, Saddoris S, Goodman LB, Holmes EC, Hafenstein SL, Parrish CR (2023) Viral capsid, antibody, and receptor interactions: experimental analysis of the antibody escape evolution of canine parvovirus. Journal of Virology, in press. Preprint: PMID: 36711712 PMCID: PMC9882321 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.18.524668
Chien AYA, Alford BK, Wasik BR, Weichert WS, Parrish CR, Daniel S (2023) Single Particle Analysis of H3N2 Influenza Entry Differentiates the Impact of the Sialic Acids (Neu5Ac and Neu5Gc) on Virus Binding and Membrane Fusion. Journal of Virology, 97(3), e01463-22. PMID: 36779754 PMCID: PMC10062150 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01463-22
Srivastava S, Verhagen A, Sasmal A, Wasik BR, Diaz S, Yu H, Bensing BA, Khan N, Khedri Z, Secrest P, Sullam P, Varki N, Chen X, Parrish CR, Varki A (2022) Development and applications of sialoglycan-recognizing probes (SGRPs) with defined specificities: exploring the dynamic mammalian sialoglycome. Glycobiology, 32(12), 1116–1136. PMID: 35926090 PMCID: PMC9680117 DOI: 10.1093/glycob/cwac050
Erickson JJ, Archer-Hartmann S, Yarawsky AE, Miller JLC, Seveau S, Shao TY, Severance AL, Miller-Handley H, Wu Y, Pham G, Wasik BR, Parrish CR, Hu YC, Lau JTY, Azadi P, Herr AB, Way SS (2022) Pregnancy enables antibody protection against intracellular infection. Nature, 606 (7915), 769-775. PMID: 35676476 PMCID: PMC9233044 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04816-9
Barnard KN, Wasik BR, Alford-Lawrence BK, Hayward J, Weichert WS, Voorhees IEV, Holmes EC, Parrish CR (2021) Sequence dynamics of three influenza A virus strains grown in different MDCK cell lines, including those expressing different sialic acid receptors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 34 (12), 1878-1900. PMID: 34114711 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13890
Ji Y, Sasmal A, Li W, Oh L, Srivastava S, Hargett AA, Wasik BR, Yu H, Diaz S, Choudhury B, Parrish CR, Freedberg DI, Wang L, Varki A, Chen X (2021) Reversible O-Acetyl Migration within the Sialic Acid Side Chain and Its Influence on Protein Recognition. ACS Chemical Biology, 16 (10), 1951-1960. PMID: 33769035 PMCID: PMC8464613 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.0c00998
Mitchell P, Cronk BD, Voorhees IEH, Rothenheber D, Anderson RR, Chan TH, Wasik BR, Dubovi EJ, Parrish CR, Goodman LB (2020) Method comparison of targeted influenza A virus typing and whole-genome sequencing from respiratory specimens of companion animals. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 33(2), 191-201. PMID: 33234046 PMCID: PMC7953085 DOI: 10.1177/1040638720933875
Barnard KN, Alford-Lawrence BK, Buchholz DW, Wasik BR, LaClair JR, Yu H, Honce RR, Ruhl S, Pajic P, Daugherity E, Chen X, Schultz-Cherry S, Aguilar-Carreno H, Varki A, Parrish CR (2020) Modified sialic acids on mucus and erythrocytes inhibit influenza A HA and NA functions. Journal of Virology, 94(9), e01567-19. PMID: 32051275 PMCID: PMC7163148 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01567-19
Martínez-Sobrido L, […10…], Wasik BR, […71…], Schultz-Cherry S (2020) Characterizing Emerging Canine H3 Influenza Viruses. PLoS Pathogens, 16(4), e1008409. PMID: 32287326 PMCID: PMC7182277 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008409
Barnard KN, Wasik BR, LaClair JR, Buchholz DW, Weichert WS, Alford-Lawrence BK, Aguilar-Carreno H, Parrish CR (2019) Expression of 9-O- and 7,9-O-acetyl modified sialic acids in cells and their effects on influenza viruses. mBio, 10(6), e02490-19. PMID: 31796537 PMCID: PMC6890989 DOI: 10.1128/mBio.02490-19
Wasik BR, Voorhees IEH, Barnard KN, Alford-Lawrence BK, Weichert WS, Hood G, Nogales A, Martínez-Sobrido L, Holmes EC, Parrish CR (2019) Influenza viruses in mice: Deep sequencing analysis of serial passage and effects of sialic acid structural variation. Journal of Virology, 93(23), e01039-19. SPOTLIGHT selection. PMID: 31511393 PMCID: PMC6854484 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01039-19
Joo EJ, Wasik BR, Parrish CR, Paz H, Muehlenhoff M, Abdel-Azim H, Groffen J, Heisterkamp N (2018) Pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia expresses cell surface nucleolin as a 9-O-acetylated sialoglycoprotein. Scientific Reports, 8(1):17174. PMID: 30464179 PMCID: PMC6249323 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-33873-2
Wasik BR, Barnard KN, Ossiboff RJ, Khedri Z, Feng KH, Yu H, Chen X, Perez DR, Varki A, Parrish CR (2017) Distribution of O-acetylated sialic acids among target host tissues for influenza virus. mSphere, 2(5), e00379-16. PMID: 28904995 PMCID: PMC5588038 DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00379-16
Khedri Z, Xiao A, Yu H, Landig CS, Li W, Diaz S, Wasik BR, Parrish CR, Wang LP, Varki A, Chen X (2017) A Chemical Biology Solution to Problems with Studying Biologically Important but Unstable 9-O-Acetyl Sialic Acids. ACS Chemical Biology, 12(1), 214-224. PMID: 27936566. PMCID: PMC5704959 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.6b00928
Feng KH, Gonzaolez G, Deng L, Yu H, Tse V, Hunag L, Huang K, Wasik BR, Zhou B, Wentworth DE, Holmes EC, Chen X, Varki A, Murcia PR, Parrish CR (2015) Equine and Canine Influenza H3N8 viruses show minimal biological differences despite phylogenetic divergence. Journal of Virology, 89(13), 6860-6873. PMID: 25903329 PMCID: PMC4468500 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00521-15
Invited Reviews
Wasik BR, de Wit E, Munster V, Lloyd-Smith J, Martínez-Sobrido L, Parrish CR (2019) Onward transmission of viruses: how do viruses emerge to cause epidemics after spillover? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 374 (1782), 2019001. PMID: 31401954 PMCID: PMC6711314 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.001
Wasik BR, Barnard KN, Parrish CR (2016) Modified sialic acids and virus infections. Trends in Microbiology, 24(12), 991-1001. PMID: 27491885 PMCID: PMC5123965 DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2016.07.005
Book Chapter
Wasik BR, Voorhees IEV, Parrish CR (2019) “Canine and Feline Influenza.” Influenza: The Cutting Edge. Ed Kawaoka Y and Neumann G. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, a038562. PMID: 31871238 PMCID: PMC7778219 DOI: 10.1101/cshperspect.a038562
Publications found at Google Scholar. ORCID.