Speakers

Bryan Grenfell

Professor
Disease Modeling and Ecology
Princeton University

Topic: Phylodynamics & universal ‘flu vaccines

Dr. Grenfell is a population biologist, working at the interface between theoretical models and empirical data.   His lab investigates the population dynamics of infectious diseases, focusing on their epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics and control by vaccination. They approach these problems by working at the interface of theoretical models and empirical data.  They are especially interested in understanding the nonlinear spatio-temporal dynamics of acute immunizing infections and how these are affected by control strategies. They are generalizing an initial and continuing focus on measles and exploring comparative dynamics of a range of pathogens, including influenza, rotavirus, RSV, Norovirus, HIV, HCV, and veterinary morbilliviruses. The lab also explores phylodynamics, in particular how pathogen phylogenies are affected by host immunity, transmission bottlenecks and epidemic dynamics at scales from individual host to the population level. Finally, his lab is keen on exploring ‘cross-scale’ dynamics of pathogens: from within-host dynamics to the population scale and especially the impact of human behavioral dynamics

Mark Tompkins

Director, Center for Influenza Disease & Emergence Research
Professor, UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Virology and Immunology
University of Georgia

Topic: Animal models of influenza

Dr. Mark Tompkins is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research, a NIAID Center of Excellence in Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) at the University of Georgia. He received his doctorate in Immunology from Emory University and then studied immune mechanisms of autoimmune diseases as a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellow before joining the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA where he studied immunity elicited by influenza vaccination. He joined the University of Georgia in 2005. Mark’s research and training programs focus on understanding the host response to emerging and re-emerging respiratory pathogens along with pathogen-pathogen interactions and vaccine elicited immunity. Mark was awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award in 2012 and most recently was appointed the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Virology and Immunology.

Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran

Assistant Professor
Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences
University of Hong Kong

Topic: Phylogeography of influenza B

Professor Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran was appointed as Associate Professor in the School of Public Health (SPH) at HKU in 2020. Before joining SPH, he was faculty at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore from 2010 and Monash University Australia from 2016, and prior to that a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant professor at HKU Department of Microbiology. He has a BSc, MSc and MPhil from University of Madras (1994-2000), and a PhD in microbial ecology and evolution from HKU (2002-2005).

Professor Dhanasekaran is head of Pathogen Evolution lab. His primary research focus is on the genomic evolution and epidemiology of rapidly evolving viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza, RSV, and others. By conducting epidemiological studies across Asia-Pacific, and through integration of genomic datasets with clinical and immunological data, his group aims to advance understanding of the genetic and ecological factors that determine the emergence and distribution of infectious diseases. Professor Dhanasekaran has published over 100 research articles with >10,000 citations.

He is on the editorial board of Communication Medicine and Frontiers in Virology. He can be followed on twitter at @vijay_lab.

Andy Ramey

Director
Molecular Ecology Lab
U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center

Topic: Environmental durability, persistence on surfaces

Dr. Ramey currently serves as the Director of the Molecular Ecology Lab at the USGS Alaska Science Center. The team of scientists working in the Molecular Ecology Lab develops and applies tools to obtain information on the health, distribution, and genomic characteristics of biological natural resources. This includes collecting and interpreting data on the health and disease status of fish and wildlife, the genetics of animal and plant populations, and the distribution of animals and pathogens using environmental DNA. This information is used to help partners and the public to make informed decisions regarding the conservation of fish and wildlife resources.

Bernadeta Dadonaite

Staff Scientist
Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Lab website: Bloom Lab

Topic: Experimental evolution

Bernadeta Dadonaite is a staff research scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She has a DPhil from University of Oxford where she studied the mechanism behind influenza virus genome packaging. She joined Jesse Bloom’s group at Fred Hutch in 2020 where she studies evolution of viral entry proteins. Her recent work focused on high-throughput characterization of mutation effects on SRAS-CoV-2 spike and H5N1 hemagglutinin proteins including defining mutations that facilitate virus immune evasion, lead to changes in receptor binding, affect protein stability, and ability to mediate cell entry.

Charles Russell

Associate Member
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Topic: Evolution of HA stability and pH activation

Dr. Charles Russell completed his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry in 1998 at the University of California at Berkeley. His doctoral research focused on membrane protein structure and binding to membranes. From 1998-2004, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Lamb of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Northwestern University. There, he dissected mechanisms by which paramyxoviruses and influenza viruses cause membrane fusion. His key discovery was the energy released upon paramyxovirus fusion (F) protein refolding is coupled to the work performed during membrane fusion. Since 2004, he has been a PI at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. His lab studies respiratory infectious diseases caused by influenza, paramyxoviruses, and pneumoviruses in normal and immunocompromised hosts. Research ranges from high-resolution structure to virus pathogenesis and transmission, connecting molecular mechanisms with biological phenotypes. A primary focus is the surface entry proteins, which the laboratory is also targeting with vaccines and therapeutics. The Russell lab developed the first negative-strand RNA reporter virus for non-invasive imaging of in vivo infection. They have used this system to dissect respiratory tract infection. They have also discovered that HA stability is a novel determinant of influenza virus transmission and interspecies adaptation. They continue to study the molecular determinants of influenza virus host range and developing enhanced influenza antigens for more broadly protective vaccines.

Katia Koelle

Professor
Department of Biology
Emory University

Lab website: The Koelle Research Group

Topic: Within Host Evolution

Dr. Koelle is interested in the population dynamics and evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases. Her research focuses on using modeling approaches to shed light on the drivers of evolutionary change in endemically circulating viral populations, most notably SARS-CoV-2, influenza viruses, and noroviruses. Her work includes both model development and interfacing models with data. She is interested in viral dynamics at multiple scales, including at the epidemiological level, at the transmission pair level, and at the within-host level.

Aubree Gordon

Professor
School of Public Health
Director, Michigan Center for Infectious Disease Threats and Pandemic Preparedness
University of Michigan

Lab website: Gordon Research Group

Topic: Community & Household transmission

Dr. Gordon’s research focuses on the dynamics of influenza transmission, natural history, susceptibility to influenza, and the development of immunity. She has established a number of large field studies of influenza and/or SARS-CoV-2 including a prospective pediatric cohort study in Nicaragua (2011-ongoing), a family cohort study in Nicaragua (2017-ongoing), and an adult cohort study in Michigan (2020-ongoing). Her work focuses on both the transmission of respiratory viruses and the development of immunity. In addition, Dr. Gordon works on dengue virus, chikungunya virus and Zika virus immunity and transmission. Dr. Gordon’s work aims to answer fundamental questions that are of the utmost priority for the understanding of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and the development of next-generation vaccines.

Derek Cummings

Professor
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Florida

Topic: Contact patterns and influenza

Dr. Cummings’ research on emerging pathogens has included studies of MERS, Ebola and novel influenza, observing and characterizing transmission dynamics in the early days of outbreaks. Particular areas of focus include speed and patterns of transmission and the natural history of a pathogen. In 2020, Derek contributed to an early transmission model for the novel coronavirus and co-authored a study finding a vaccine effective against a common variant. Prior to coming to UF, Derek and his colleagues collaborated to develop an infectious disease surveillance system for targeting Ebola and other infectious diseases before they proliferate and become serious threats to public health.