Sequencing of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) genome and associated microbiome from outbreak of 2012-2013 season in USA

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is one of the most important cause of serious lower respiratory tract disease of infant and young children, both in the United States and globally, therefore is of considerable public health importance. As part of this project we will study RSV isolates obtained from a prospective bronchiolitis-to-asthma infant cohort with defined parameters of illness such as bronchiolitis severity score (BSS) and prolonged wheezing. Our goal is to study the impact of disease severity caused by the different RSV genotypes by sequencing; and associate it with the microbiome of the disease incidence. This will facilitate our understanding of the respiratory microbiome of infants during healthy and diseased state, the association with respiratory morbidity, and whether early life modification could ultimately be predictive of, or be modified to prevent subsequent respiratory morbidity.