People by Name
People by Name
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS and Moredun Research Institute
I am interested in the mechanisms that underlie protective immunity and disease: the phenotypes immune cells adopt to mitigate disease, and how to detect and quantify protective immune profiles in laboratory models, domesticated animals, and in natural populations
I have broad interests in population ecology and genetics but my research focuses on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in wild animal populations, applications of phylogenetics, use of pathogen genetic markers, molecular ecology and demography of wildlife populations
The epidemiological and economic feasibility of using a live test for scrapie in the field at the within-flock and national flock level.
Quantitative epidemiological and economic approaches to understand disease in livestock and wildlife populations to inform decisions in livestock production, human health and animal welfare.
My research focuses on understanding the distribution of plant diversity, both at very large (global) scales and also, in collaboration with different colleagues, at regional and more local scales. This might be with specimen data for rates of publication of names, for numbers of species and for genera and higher taxa. In addition, I manage the plants side of the IUCN Sampled Red List Index. This is an official CBD indicator for the 2010 Biodiversity Target, and has already produced a scientifically-rigorous baseline of the current global conservation status of plants; from this an index of extinction risk can be calculated and, periodically re-assessing the same species, tracked over time to see whether or not “a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biodiversity” has been achieved. This project is a part of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), and is now being expanded into EDGE Plants, prioritising species through both their conservation status and their evolutionary distinctiveness.
Kirstyn Brunker
My research interests focus on uncovering the dynamics of domestic dog rabies in heterogeneous landscapes using a combination of genetic and epidemiological data.
Yi-Hsiu Chen
I am interested in the applications of modelling techniques to conservation and management, particularly in modelling species occurrence, population dynamics and biotic interactions. My current project focuses on how learning shapes animals' foraging strategies. We constructed a set of mathematical models to describe the trade-off between learning and feeding, and aim to link the theoretical results with activity of grey seals in Scotland.
Nai Rui Chng
My research interest is on the regulatory and contentious politics of urban basic necessities in the developing world. My PhD work was on the privatization of water in Metro Manila, Philippines. Currently I am working on environmental politics in China, and politics of public health in Southeast Asia.
I am interested in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. My research focuses on transmission of Streptococcus agalactiae in networks of humans and animals.
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine,
CMVLS and Global Alliance for Rabies Control
I am a veterinary epidemiologist with wide ranging interests in emerging and zoonotic disease, ecology and conservation ecology, and ecosystem health. I am particularly interested in the control of rabies in developing countries. Much of my work is based in Kenya and Tanzania.
I have broad interests in the mathematics of biological interactions, particularly host-parasitoid interactions, the evolution of developmental timing, and modelling dynamics of rapid evolutionary processes such as antigenic variation in trypanosomes and mutation leading to myotonic dystrophy.
I study the transmission dynamics of bovine tuberculosis, a disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis. I use the variation present in Whole Genome Sequence data to elucidate the force and direction of spread within and between species.
Vinny Davies
I am a Ph.D. student in the School of Mathematics and Statistics where I study Bayesian Computational Statistics for Systems Biology. My current work looks into creating statistical models for predicting cross-protection between strains within Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus. I also do some work incorporating a more realistic error structure into the modelling of Transcriptional Regulation.
- Department of Large Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen
My main research interests are in the application of computationally intensive statistical techniques to complex biological problems, particularly using techniques such as Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). I am also interested in ways of using statistical methods, decision support tools and economic modelling to inform decisions on farms and help improve productivity and welfare of production animals.
Specifically interested in the social, cognitive, and emotional precursors of behavior change in individuals and populations in response to infectious diseases and communication about risk; and the effective integration of this sophisticated behavioral information into computational epidemiological models.
- Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling
I work mainly on contagions spreading on networks or graphs. I am interested in representing disease decision making situations as games on graphs, in what makes a network susceptible or resistant to disease, and in applying graph theoretic ideas to network epidemiology.
CSS
Research interests: Quantitative Finance, Mathematical Economics, Macroeconomics and Financial Linkages, Environmental amd Resource Economics.
My interests lie in combining laboratory, field and theoretical investigations to identify the evolutionary and ecological factors that stabilize parasite life cycles; and applying this knowledge to highlight weak points in transmission that could be exploited by new and/or existing control strategies.
Martin Gilbert
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS and Wildlife Conservation Society
I am a wildlife ecologist and field veterinarian, most recently working on modelling the impact of canine distemper (CDV) on wild tiger populations to understand the contribution of domestic and wild carnivores to the CDV reservoir.
I am interested in the epidemiology of zoonotic pathogens. Most of my previous work has been based in Kenya, looking at the surveillance of influenza A, Leptospira spp and a range of other rodent-borne zoonoses in an urban slum setting. I am currently working on a project in Tanzania, examining the impact and ecology of bacterial zoonoses that cause fever (including Leptospira, Brucella and Coxiella spp.).
My research focuses on the ecology of infectious diseases, particularly rabies, with the aim understanding infection dynamics across spatial scales and the impacts of control efforts. I use a combination of detailed field investigations, vaccination interventions and modeling.
Will Harvey
My research interests focus on exploring the genetic basis of antigenic cross-reactivity in Influenza A viruses through modelling. The aim is to further develop methods for predicting antigenic difference.
My research interests focus on modelling a wide diversity of epidemiological, ecological, and population genetic processes.
My interests include mathematical modelling of the ecology of plants using spatial point processes, plankton population dynamics, and in general mathematical biology and physiology.
I am a landscape ecologist interested in the distribution and abundance of organisms, animal movement, and applied conservation issues. My research investigates ecological interactions by combining detailed field-based metrics of habitats, GPS collars, GIS / RS, chemical analysis of samples, and statistical inference to quantify the relationships between soils, plants, herbivores, and their predators.
I am interested in the role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases of livestock, especially prion diseases such as scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
My research focuses on the application, adaptation and improvement of computational statistics and machine learning methods for systems biology and ecology. This includes Bayesian inference of non-homogeneous dynamical Bayesian networks for modelling species interactions, both in molecular biology (genes, proteins, metabolites) and ecology (ecological networks), as well as parameter inference and model selection in mechanistic models of biopathways. One of the main biological applications I am currently involved in is the inference of molecular feedback mechanisms between circadian regulation and metabolism in plants. Other projects I am involved in are related to viral evolution (with Richard Reeve) and mass migration (with Jason Matthiopoulos).
Paul Johnson
Developing and applying statistical methods in fields ranging from population genetics to ecology to human and veterinary epidemiology; using computer simulation to improve study design; power analysis; genetic association studies; modelling genotyping errors; GLMMs.
Bovine immunogenetics in relation to immunity to disease, metabolic function and production characteristics. Evolution of drug resistance among parasites and management strategies to delay loss of efficacy of products in the field.
- Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling
My research concentrates on mathematical biology: applications of mathematics to biology, ecology, epidemiology and – more recently – economics.
The main focus of my research is utilising field epidemiological data, laboratory experiments and population genetics to understand population structure, transmission dynamics and the effects of long-term mass drug administration on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths and onchocerciasis.
Felix Lankester
In 2009 I moved to Tanzania to take up the post of Director of Tanzanian Programs for Lincoln Park Zoo (LPZ). My primary responsibility is the coordination of a disease surveillance and control program called the Serengeti Health Initiative (SHI) / Afya Serengeti Project that specifically focuses on infectious diseases, like rabies, that impact wildlife, livestock and public health. A recent collaboration between LPZ and the University of Glasgow has seen me begin a PhD program looking into the control of malignant catarrhal fever, a viral infectious disease that is transmitted between wildebeest and cattle.
- School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh
I am a mathematician interested in the quantification of diversity. My background is in category theory, an abstract branch of mathematics whose main application to date has been to computer science; but there also turn out to be surprising applications to theoretical ecology. I have been using ideas from category theory to develop a new system for measuring biological diversity.
As a veterinary epidemiologist, I have interests in a wide range of zoonotic and multi-host pathogens. I have worked mainly in Tanzania on diseases such as rabies, bovine tuberculosis, anthrax and canine distemper, developing new diagnostic and epidemiological approaches to address disease problems from the perspectives of public health, livestock development and wildlife conservation.
I am interested in population dynamics, demography, life-history evolution, sexual selection and mate choice. At present my research focuses on linking environmental variation in resource levels to individual strategies in resource allocation, behaviour, signalling and mate choice, using a combination of theoretical modelling and experimental work.
The study of the genetic and ecological consequences of a particularly extreme form of genetic change- whole genome duplication or polyploidy - particularly the consequences of gene duplication at the level of gene families. I am interested in how such genomic changes affect interactions between organisms, such as mate choice and pathogen response.
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS and Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology
My research interest is focused on the interaction between parasites, African trypanosomes, and their hosts, bridging the gap between field based population studies, genomics, and lab-based molecular biology, with a long-term view to exploiting these interactions to combat disease.
- Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, MVLS
I am a computational ecologist with an interest in ecological dynamics. I have a background in mathematics, software development and science communication.
Louise Matthews
My interests lie in the application of quantitative tools to infectious disease data to enhance our understanding of host-pathogen systems. Interests include: the role of individual variability, persistence of rare pathogens in metapopulations, the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in the livestock reservoir, and genetic susceptibility and selective breeding for disease control.
I am a mathematical/statistical ecologist with research interests in population dynamics and spatial ecology. My emphasis is on method-development for bringing models together with data and applying these insights to problems in wildlife conservation, natural resource management and epidemiology
I am interested in the integration of behavioural, physiological and neurophysiological techniques to investigate animal welfare issues, primarily those related to modern poultry production.
- CMVLS
Understanding the circumstances that conspire to bring people into contact with animals and/or their products in ways that alter their risk of zoonotic disease.
Caroline Millins
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS
I am a veterinary pathologist with research interests in the ecology and epidemiology of wildlife diseases. My current research aims to understand the effect of vertebrate host communities on the risk of Lyme disease in Scotland.
Sonia Mitchell
My research interests focus on the measurement, interpretation, dynamics, and partitioning of similarity-sensitive biological diversity.
I am a bioinformatician interested in biological data analysis. I am currently working for EPIC project. My research largely focuses on sheep movement network analysis.
My research is broadly aimed at the understanding of the molecular turnover and role of tandemly repeated DNA sequences in the human genome and their relationship to inherited disease.
Identifying and dissecting host-parasite interactions that contribute to disease severity, with a particular focus on African trypanosomes.
I am working on modelling bovine tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease spread in livestock.
I am a veterinary epidemiologist with a particular interest in the prevention of equine fatal and non-fatal injuries. My major area of work is with racing Thoroughbreds, having worked on projects in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK. I am also interested in the use of genetics, imaging and pathology to identify "at risk" horses at the earliest possible stage of the disease/injury process.
Minnie Parmiter
My research interests lie in the use of mathematical models for analysis and prediction and control of disease dynamics. I have a particular interest in malaria, as well as vector-borne, zoonotic and emerging infections in a multidisciplinary context. Additionally, I am intrigued by network and systems biology and how disease occurrence is influenced by macro-drivers such as climatic or environmental change, drug-resistance, resource availability and particularly socio-economic status.
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS and The Pirbright Institute
I am a mathematical modeller who has moved into the life sciences to study diversity. My work focusses on developing the connections between different fields that use diversity measures, and I am especially interested in the connections between the fields, which analyse it from the level of the transcript to the ecosystem, and the underlying mathematics. Much of my work is on the application side, where I work on understanding how to measure similarity of individuals for integration into similarity-sensitive diversity measures, with a particular focus on antigenic similarity of viruses, especially foot-and-mouth disease and flu.
Currently the principal of the Royal Veterinary College. Research interests: the application of advanced statistical methods (Bayesian, MCMC, GLM, mixed models) in quantitative epidemiology. With a focus on pathogens of zoonotic and public health significance, our research is directed towards understanding the distribution and dynamics of disease determinants at the population level.
I am SICSA funded lecturer in the Computing Science department. My research focuses on machine learning and statistical inference predominantly within the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics as well as beginning to dabble in the interesting world of multimodal interaction.
I am a computational ecologist with broad interests in infectious disease dynamics, spatial ecology and animal movement. I use a combination of data analysis and computer simulations to understand bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) transmission dynamics in different countries. I am particularly interested in the study of how new infected areas arise from animal movement patterns, in the improvement of disease surveillance systems, and in the comparative analysis of genomic pathogen data (WGS) to understand disease transmission between different animal species.
Jo Sharp
My research interests are in feminist, postcolonial, cultural and political geographies. Much of my research has been undertaken in Africa, most recently in Tanzania.
- School of Life Sciences and Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS
My research is focused on the understanding of ecological processes that shape coastal marine communities and sustain their diversity. I am interested in processes relating species-interactions with environmental stressors such as extreme disturbances, eutrophication, and climate change. To-date, I have applied a range of quantitative tools including statistical approaches and dynamic modelling as well as experimental approaches and field monitoring to investigate patterns and assembly rules in natural communities such as phytoplankton, macroalgae and bacteria. My program embraces different levels of biological organisation including characterisations of individual species, population dynamics and community ecology. I aim to understand mechanisms affecting the organisation of populations and communities in the short- and long-term, at both local (patch) and regional (metacommunity) scales.
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine and MRC / UoG Centre for Virus Research, CMVLS
I am a disease ecologist with a broad interest in the transmission dynamics and control of multi-host pathogens. I apply a combination of field studies, phylogenetics and quantitative approaches to viral infections in bats, mostly centered around field systems the Andes and Amazon of Peru.
Louise Taylor
I work with the centre on translating the results of our joint reassessment of the burden of canine rabies into key data and messages to advocate for better investment in rabies control at the global level.
My main research focus is forest regeneration, plant community dynamics and factors that influence plant distribution and biodiversity. Most studies have been carried out in tropical forest (Puerto Rico, Ghana and Brazil) and includes the effect of human and natural disturbances, investigations of ecosystem processes and plant ecophysiology.
I am a theoretical ecologist interested in the the population dynamics and stability of populations and model communities.
Hannah Trewby
My research aims to integrate the use of phylogenetic and epidemiological information to investigate the spread of bovine tuberculosis, and other bacterial infections, in UK cattle.
Pathogens don't live in a vacuum, they interact in complex communities within their hosts. The composition of these communities may also vary among hosts, particularly if a pathogen infects multiple species. My current research aims to identify the best disease management strategies to employ across these varying community contexts using both statistical and theoretical approaches. I am also interested in most areas in ecology, but I particularly enjoy confronting models with large datasets because the knowledge gained and consequent impacts can be so high. Some current research themes are listed below.
Ruth Zadoks
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS and Moredun Research Institute
I am a veterinary epidemiologist with an interest in infectious and zoonotic diseases of livestock and fish. I am particularly interested in the use of DNA-based methods to enhance our knowledge of microbial subpopulations and their associations with sources of infection, niche adaptation, transmission mechanisms and disease manifestation.