CCDD ID Epi Spring Seminar Series

Talk title: Timing is everything – the within and between host evolutionary dynamics of seasonal influenza viruses.

Presenter: Dr. Colin Russell, Professor of Applied Evolutionary Biology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center.

Dr. Russell’s research is driven by his desire to understand how viruses evolve so that we can design better intervention strategies to combat them. His previous work has uncovered the global dynamics of seasonal influenza viruses showing that A/H3N2 viruses spread globally from E&SE Asia each year (Science 2008) and how rates of virus evolution fundamentally alter these dynamics (Nature 2015). He has worked extensively on the predictability of influenza virus evolution (eLife 2014, PNAS 2016), on the antigenic evolution of the influenza virus neuraminidase (PNAS 2011), on how within-host virus evolutionary dynamics dictate the probabilities of new variant emergence (Science 2012), and on how antibody-mediated immunity evolves with each influenza virus infection (Science 2014).

About the series: Each spring, the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics 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 11th and May 6th with the exception of March 18th. Recordings of presentations will be made publicly available each week.

Register for the seminar here.