My main research focuses on understanding the diversity, ecology, and evolution of viruses, with a strong emphasis on (primarily zoonotic) RNA viruses. The goal of this research is to understand how viruses change, and how those changes affect the pathogenicity and/or immune responses in humans. The practical side of this research is gaining new diagnostic methods to detect and characterize viruses, while the translational side of the research relates building molecular and bio-informatic tools to characterize the virome using 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation sequencing. Principal virological taxa include: Bunyaviruses (Order Bunyavirales, families Hantaviridae, Peribunyaviridae, and Nairoviridae); Mosquito- and tick-borne flaviviruses (West Nile virus, Usutu virus, Tick-borne encephalitis virus); Influenza A/B/C viruses; Respiratory syncytial virus (Human orthopneumovirus A/B)