Dr. Kahn credited Emrah Altindis, PhD, an instructor in medicine at Harvard and a research associate at Joslin, for finding the four VILPs, each encoded by a different member of the Iridoviridae family of viruses.
Iridoviridae are not known to infect humans, but they do infect fish, insects, and amphibians. In fact, iridovirus infection is the most common viral disease in saltwater fish, according to Dr. Kahn.
“What’s interesting, of course, is that we eat fish, and we can potentially eat fish that are contaminated with these viruses,” Dr. Kahn said in his presentation.
“So, could these VILPs play a role in human disease? This is really an important area of challenge,” he added.