

Contact Details
Richard Goldstein
Chair of Pathogen Evolution
Division of Infection & Immunity, Faculty of Medical Sciences
- r.goldstein@ucl.ac.uk
- Room 3.3.07, UCL Cruciform Building, Gower street, London, WC1E 6BT
Human Evolution Interest
Research in the Goldstein lab focuses on computational modelling of pathogen evolution, with an emphasis on viruses.
In order to understand the properties of viruses, how they
transmit, how they interact with their hosts, how they transfer between
hosts, we need to investigate the evolutionary process that determined
their form and function. Conversely, the evolution of viruses and hosts
cannot be understood without considering how their form and function
constrain the evolutionary process. Finally, the evolutionary record
encodes the history of these organisms - when and where they emerged,
how they spread amongst various populations, how they adapted to new
hosts (such as humans), and how they have interacted with host factors,
immune system, and drugs. Analysis of these sequences can provide a
powerful window into this history, providing insight into the present
situation and future trends. This has important consequences for
monitoring and controlling disease emergence and spread, for identifying
new drug targets, for modelling the emergence of drug resistance, as
well as for developing our basic understanding of viruses and virus-host
interactions.