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My interests centre on determinants of virulence and host range, emergence of novel pathogens, and human interventions with knock on effects for infectious disease dynamics.
Since 2009 I have been working on dsDNA viruses (genus Ranavirus, family Iridoviridae) responsible for severe disease, mass-mortality and declines in amphibian hosts. I have employed a range of complementary approaches to study emergence of European ranaviruses including spatial epidemiology, candidate gene phylogenetics, and whole genome sequencing. I am currently using high throughput sequence datasets to study virus evolution as well as host responses to pathogen exposure. I am also interested in developing protocols to enable more sensitive, widespread, non-invasive sampling and diagnostics to improve disease surveillance and research opportunities.
My work includes fieldwork at sites of disease outbreaks, a range of core molecular biology techniques, and diverse computational approaches to data analysis. I work at the interface of veterinary science, population genetics, and bioinformatics and collaborate with experts in each of these fields to research questions of conservation and evolutionary importance and interest.