Hannah Brown: How artificial organs are combating a virus

Hannah smiles as she sits in front of a biosafety cabinet, preparing samples under the hood. — Hannah Brown, a postdoctoral associate at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, studies hepatitis E. Photo courtesy of Hannah Brown.

The following story was written in Fall 2025 by Maddox Torres in ENGL 4824: Science Writing as part of a collaboration among the English department, the Center for Communicating Science, and the U.S. National Science Foundation COMPASS Center. The COMPASS Center is tackling the grand challenge of uncovering the genetic, molecular, cellular, and chemical rules of life underlying virus-host interactions through community-based and ethically grounded research. It is one of four Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) centers funded by the National Science Foundation.

Mild fever, fatigue, itching, and an inflamed liver are hallmarks of the disease hepatitis E. As of 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded there were approximately 20 million infections annually, with 3.3 million symptomatic cases and 44,000 deaths. But how has the hepatitis E virus, a pathogen that originated in animals, caused hepatitis E in so many humans? And how can it be studied if it can’t grow well in a lab. . .or can it?

Hannah Brown, a virologist from Yorkshire, England, and a postdoctoral associate at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, is looking to answer these questions. She arrived in Blacksburg in March of 2025, in time to enjoy a summer that she says was “actually hot, maybe a little too hot!”

Brown is specifically interested in zoonotic viruses, which she describes as viruses that have the ability to infect both animals and humans. She has always cared for and loved animals, especially livestock, and has always been concerned about their health and welfare.

“I think we have a responsibility to ensure their health and welfare," Brown explains.

When Brown was younger, she wanted to be a veterinarian and had the chance to do work experience at a veterinary practice. However, seeing only sick animals or seeing pets being put down made her realize that line of work was not for her. Instead, Brown pursued a degree in bioveterinary science, which is similar to biomedical science but focuses on studying the pathogens of many species such as dogs, cats, horses, and livestock as well as humans. After earning her degree, and a brief period of work as a zookeeper, Brown shifted toward working in a lab.

When Brown received her Ph.D., she began her research on the hepatitis E virus (HEV), a pathogen that can be spread among humans through contaminated drinking water or zoonotically when humans consume undercooked or raw meat from infected pigs. Brown was drawn to understanding the animal routes of transmission, though the consequences of infection via either route are similar: hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver. In severe cases, this can progress to chronic hepatitis and potentially to “scarring” on the liver.

Image contains a colorful microscopic scan of a brain organioid. — Lab-created models of organs, called organoids, can be used to understand how the real organ might respond to challenges. Photo courtesy of Colin Bishop.

In some cases, however, the hepatitis E virus can also affect the brain.

Depending on the cohort sampled, up to “thirty percent of people with a hepatitis E infection experience some form of neurological complication,” says Brown. “And it's really interesting because [the virus] infects the liver. So why is it or how is it getting into the brain?”

Brown says that one challenge with studying the virus is that it does not like to be grown in a lab, which requires creative approaches from the researcher.

“[The solution] is to use something a lot more complex, that mimics a real liver, in the hope that the virus will look at that and be like, ‘That is a liver, I'll infect that!’,” Brown explains.

Brown’s research uses special models called organoids, which are essentially artificially made organs. Brown and her colleagues can grow an artificial 3-dimensional liver containing multiple cell types to better mimic how an actual liver looks and acts, especially when infected with the hepatitis E virus.

A blue and white stained slide contains five blobs of organoid tissue, varying in shape and size. — Organoids are designed to contain multiple cell types, mimicking real organs. Photo courtesy of Hannah Brown.

Similarly, Brown will use brain organoids to understand how the hepatitis E virus infects the brain, how it replicates in cells, and how it might be causing neurological disease in people infected with the virus. She and her team receive and infect brain organoids with the hepatitis E virus and hope to test many over the course of the research. Brown’s work will not only allow for better understanding of the pathogen, but it may also support the development of new drug therapies targeting the virus.

Brown, who works with X. J. Meng in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, is a postdoctoral research trainee in the NSF COMPASS Center (National Science Foundation Center for Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies). Other researchers who are part of the COMPASS Center, Colin Bishop at Wake Forest University and Padma Rajagopalan here at Virginia Tech, create the organoids Brown uses in her research. Her work supports the center's quest to learn more about how viruses jump from animals to humans, persist, and spread, with the end goal of being able to predict and prevent potential pandemics.

Brown’s work exemplifies how following an early passion for animals can lead to diverse and potentially unexpected career opportunities. Today, that same passion is driving Brown to protect both humans and animals from infectious disease.