His research on chikungunya virus (CHIKV) preceded the ongoing epidemics that have recently infected over 1M people in the Americas. His development of patented infectious clones of this CHIKV placed his group at the forefront of research on this virus. They have distributed these research tools to other groups in an effort to better understand the epidemic. They have published over 30 papers on many aspects of chikungunya with collaborators from multiple institutes in different countries.