Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
- 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
My work explores dispersal patterns in Mountain hares and investigates how
differing harvesting regimes affect population dynamics in this species. |
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.
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Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
My interests include relating physiological mechanisms to life-history theory. I conduct research on a wild population of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus to investigate the role of reproductive physiology, environmental variables and parental quality in avian sex-ratio adjustment. |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Sam Lycett Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
I am a computational biologist and am interested in the pattern of evolution and spread of pathogens including Avian and Swine Influenza and Bovine TB. My research makes use of the large quantity of sequence data now available, and I apply machine learning techniques and Bayesian phylogenetics to investigate cross species transmissions, host adaptations, epistatic interactions, phylodynamics and phylogeography. I'm developing methods and tools for integrating sequence and epidemiological data to infer transmission patterns and contact networks for livestock pathogens of interest in Scotland, the UK and surrounding countries. |
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.
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.
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Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
My current research is looking at the spatiotemporal distribution of genotypes of M. bovis in both the cattle and badger populations in Britain. By examining data recorded over the previous ten years, I hope to identify the role the two animal species and the different M. bovis genotypes play in the ongoing bovine tuberculosis epidemic. |
Anthony O'Hare Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
I am interested in the computational techniques used in the modelling of infectious diseases at various scales. The development of theoretical models of disease transmission using stochastic differential equation models. Currently my main research is modelling the within herd dynamics of bovine tuberculosis and the spacial dynamics of infectious diseases such as Foot and Mouth. |
I am working on modelling bovine tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease spread in livestock.
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Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
My research seeks to examine parasite thresholds and the use of the metapopulation paradigm in disease and population ecology using a natural system of rodent populations on the island system of Loch Lomond. |
- 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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, CMVLS |
My research is focused on measuring the genetic diversity of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus at different spatial scales - within individuals, herds, between farms, and across landscapes - and understanding how patterns of diversity at these different scales are linked. |
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.