Wolfe virus hunter

Teams of scientists in the United States and the Netherlands created a mutation of H5N1 in the lab that reportedly spreads as fast as H1N1. They made international headlines in December when they submitted their research for publication in scientific journals amid an outcry that the information is too dangerous to publish.

On Jan. On Friday, the World Health Organization announced that the moratorium on publication and research will be extended. It did not specify when the freeze would expire. Wolfe said the research is significant because it shows it is possible for a mutation of H5N1 to be transmitted to mammals. But he is letting others handle the controversy about whether the information should be made public, choosing instead to keep a watchful eye on viruses mutating and spreading in nature.

Growing up in Detroit, far from the jungle, in a family of social workers, Wolfe said he was fascinated as a kid with evolution. But it wasn't until his doctoral studies at Harvard in , he said, that he really "got the bug" and focused on viruses. He decided to make his life's work studying deadly microbes - how they move, how they change, and how to stop them before it's too late.

Through his work, Wolfe has contracted "all kinds of stuff," including dysentery, the parasite giardia and three cases of malaria. Two of the bouts were in Cameroon and the third was contracted there but wasn't symptomatic until he returned to the United States. Wolfe said he received better treatment in Cameroon because the doctors there are so familiar with the disease. Malaria is so rare in the United States, he said, that drug companies have no financial incentive to get the FDA to approve the newest antimalarial drugs.

Wolfe's fiancee, playwright and screenwriter Lauren Gunderson , said he is not a "germaphobe," but does have a penchant for hand sanitizer, especially in airports, restaurants and meetings where people are shaking hands.

Wolfe believes alcohol "is a wonderful gift to humans and a remarkably effective way of destroying microorganisms. Wolfe met Gunderson, 30, after her agent noted that many of her plays and scripts dealt with science. She suggested Gunderson, who was living in New York at the time, call Wolfe to get ideas for a future screenplay. Gunderson did, and the two had a pleasant conversation, but they didn't meet until several months later, in , when Gunderson traveled to Northern California for the production of one of her plays, "Rock Creek: Southern Gothic," and remembered "that guy," lived there.

Their first meeting morphed from coffee, to dinner, to a ride on his Vespa through San Francisco to watch the sunset. Wolfe's provocative vision may leave you feeling distinctly uncomfortable - but it will reveal exactly what it is we are up against. It's hard not to feel a bit feverish at times while reading' Boston Globe 'The plague-ridden future imagined by this authoritative, measured, yet gripping book is extremely alarming' Sunday Times 'Nathan Wolfe is saving the world from near-inevitable pandemic Along with , others, Wintering author Katherine May is obsessed with Wordle.

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