CCDD ID Epi Seminar Series

Talk title: Within-host evolution and its implications for pathogen genomic surveillance.

Presenter: Gerry Tonkin-Hill, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo.

Dr Tonkin-Hill’s research at the University of Oslo focuses on microbial genomics and the development of computational and statistical tools to track the evolution and transmission of pathogens. In particular, Gerry is interested in how pathogens evolve within the host and the role of horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of bacteria. He has developed several popular tools to infer pathogen population structure, transmission networks and bacterial pangenomes. Gerry completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Sanger Institute where he maintains a visiting researcher position. He is currently working with researchers in Australia and Cambodia on the impact of antimicrobial treatment on bacterial within-host genetic diversity.

About the series: Each spring, CCDD hosts an annual seminar series featuring talks from experts on the latest research in infectious disease epidemiology and modeling. The ID Epi Seminar Series aims to bring in speakers from various disciplines within infectious disease epidemiology, broadly defined to include the population biology of pathogens and other allied topics. Seminars will be held on Thursdays at 1pm ET between February 9th and May 11th with the exception of March 16th (spring break).

For the first three meetings, we will be trialing a hybrid format. The in-person seminar will be located in Kresge G2 at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Registering with the Zoom seminar will grant you access to both in-person seminars as well as remote versions of the seminar. A recording of this seminar will also be made available.

Register for the seminar here.