Bird Flu Research Earns Professor Accolades in China | 12/17/2013

UConn Today 
Author: Sheila Foran

When an influenza virus that normally only affects birds jumped to human hosts in China earlier this year, both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization were quick to say that such cases are highly unusual and to confirm that the virus does not spread easily from person to person.

Nevertheless, UConn researcher Mazhar Khan, Professor of Pathobiology in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was keenly interested in the news.

Khan develops DNA-based diagnostic tests for the detection of animal diseases, as well as vaccines for avian influenza. He also has a long relationship with the People’s Republic of China that dates back to the mid-1990s, when a visiting scholar came to UConn to learn diagnostic DNA techniques. More…