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REDI-NET training event in Washington D.C.

Author: Michele Adams

Woman standing by a podium presenter to several people sitting in an auditorium.
Dr. Nicole Achee, REDI-NET Lead PI

In May 2025, members of the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) and WRAIR Viral Diseases Program gathered at the Smithsonian Institution Museum Support Center in Washington D.C. for a hands-on / hybrid training event. Additional trainees from WRAIR Africa and NAMRU SOUTH joined remotely and will have additional hands-on training at a later date. During this five day event, trainees gained valuable technical knowledge provided by REDI-NET Consortium experts, and apply that knowledge immediately to field collections and laboratory processes. Dr. Nicole Achee, lead PI, kicked off the training with an overview of the REDI-NET program. The trainees participated in the field collection of ticks, water and soil. Samples were brought back to the lab, where trainees learned first hand how to process the raw sample using TNA extraction. The samples were then tested using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) on Oxford Nanopore's GridION sequencer. Throughout the training, trainees were able to use the REDI-NET mobile and web applications to ingest collected data into the REDI-NET e-Merge Pipeline, from field collection to analysis.

Two women, one in miliary fatigues, looking a museum sample.
MAJ Christan Stager and Dr. Yvonne Linton, exploring the archives at the SI Museum Support Center.
A man and a woman working in a laboratory.
Anna Grace Deakins, from UADA, and Roger Pan, from NHRC, working on cDNA synthesis.
A woman using a hand held device to enter field data.
Alyssa Ilano entering field collection data into the REDI-NET Mobile App.
Three women gather around a white cloth collecting ticks from the cloth.
Dr. Suppaluck Nelson, Dr. Maureen Kamau, and Dr. Hsiao-Mei Liao collecting ticks from a tick drag.
A man holding a pipette while loading a flowcell.
Usman Batagarawa, from WRAIR Viral Disease Program, loads the sample library into the Oxford Nanopore GridION sequencer.
A man seated placing ticks on a slide and another woman looks on.
Dr. Ozan Kiratli, from WRAIR Viral Diseases Program, and Dr. Suppaluck Nelson, from NHRC, use the Vectec IDX tower for tick identification.

This work is supported by the US Army Medical Research and Development Command under Contract No.W81XWH-21-C-0001, W81XWH-22-C-0093, HT9425-23-C-0059 and HT9425-24-C-0072. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Army or Navy position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation.