My area of interest is developing mathematical models to gain insight into infectious disease systems. I am particularly interested in the evolution of virulence in response to both pharmaceutical and alternative intervention strategies for maintaining healthy host populations. The interplay between epidemiology, in particular the role of intervention (with its economic and social constraints) on disease dynamics, and evolution of pathogen virulence is a burgeoning and exciting research area where modelling has a vital role.

In particular I am looking at Marek's Disease (MD), a worldwide and endemic poultry disease caused by a DNA virus. MDV is an oncogenic virus and the first to have a prophylactic vaccine developed against it. MD forms one of the most famous examples of virus evolution in a livestock population, displaying a trend of increased virulence over the last half century, most notably in the US. Vaccination has been postulated as the main driver for this evolution. I want to test this hypothesis and other possible reasons for the evolution of virulence viamathematical modelling. This approach will potentially be able to instruct new approaches for vaccination and livestock management.