WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 29, 2026 — Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) have made an important discovery that could help doctors tell Ebola apart from other infections more quickly. The findings were published in Frontiers in Genetics.
When someone is infected with Ebola, the body mounts a strong immune response, as it does in response to many pathogens.
“Many infections trigger very similar immune responses in the body, making it difficult to distinguish one disease from another based on gene expression alone,” said Mostafa Rezapour, Ph.D., lead author and researcher at WFIRM. “Our approach goes beyond traditional analysis by systematically removing these shared signals, allowing us to identify what is truly specific to Ebola virus infection.”
The overlap of response by Ebola and other pathogens has made it difficult to find markers that are truly unique to Ebola.
The team compared blood samples from Ebola-infected animals and people with samples from patients with other illnesses such as mpox, influenza, COVID-19, bacterial pneumonia, and HIV. By removing genes that were shared across these infections, they were able to pinpoint 281 genes that appear to be specific to Ebola. They then identified a top-50 gene set and one “genetic fingerprint” specific to Ebola that correctly identified Ebola cases 95% of the time. This discovery could help scientists develop better diagnostic tests, especially in outbreak settings where quick and accurate detection saves lives.
“These findings demonstrate how advanced computational genomics can uncover disease‑specific biological signals that traditional approaches often miss,” said Anthony Atala, M.D., director of WFIRM and senior author of the study. “This work strengthens our ability to distinguish highly dangerous pathogens using host responses and advances the development of more precise diagnostic strategies.”
The study was conducted using previously collected data and was funded by a grant from the State of North Carolina.
About WFIRM
Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM)is recognized as an international leader in translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies, with many world firsts, including the development and implantation of the first engineered organ in a patient. Over 500 people at the institute, the largest in the world, work on more than 40 different tissues and organs. A number of the basic principles of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine were first developed at the institute. WFIRM researchers have successfully engineered replacement tissues and organs in all four categories – flat structures, tubular tissues, hollow organs and solid organs – and 18 different applications of cell/tissue therapy technologies, such as skin, urethras, cartilage, bladders, muscle, kidney and vaginal organs, have been successfully used in human patients. The institute –which is part of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the academic core of Advocate Health – is in the Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, and is driven by the urgent needs of patients. The institute is making a global difference in regenerative medicine through collaborations with over 600 entities and institutions worldwide, through its government, academic and industry partnerships, its start-up entities, and through major initiatives in breakthrough technologies, such as tissue engineering, cell therapies, diagnostics, drug discovery, biomanufacturing, nanotechnology, gene editing and 3D printing.