Below I will outline 5 pillars of my current research program:
- Evolvability and the shape of evolution ►
- Theoretical approaches in evolutionary medicine ►
- Models in the ecology and evolution of infectious disease ►
- Epidemiology, context, social inequalities ►
- The interaction between science and culture ►
In recent years, evolutionary geneticists have examined genotype-phenotype maps (often in the guise of adaptive or fitness landscapes) using a range of perspectives. Some of this involves understanding how non-linearity in the landscape — governed by epistatic (G x G) interactions between mutations — affects the repeatability and predictability of adaptive trajectories. In this area of my work, I combine empirical data, evolutionary theory, and computational modeling toward understanding the forces that influence the relationship between genotype and protein function. I am especially interested in the role of higher-order epistatic interactions in defining the shape of possibility through which evolution must navigate
Following from the first area of research, arises a second that aims to translate evolutionary genetics toward more innovative applications in biomedicine. I am interested in implementing more nuanced population genetics into models of drug therapy towards more effective strategies for undermining the evolution of drug resistance. This portion of my research program also has a strong empirical component, as the models would include parameters based on data collected at the bench (and perhaps, bedside). Most recently, I’ve studied resistance in malarial parasites. However, the general approach can be applied to several other pathogen-drug systems.
In this area, I utilize the field, experiments, and models informed by empirical that capture the peculiar dynamics of infectious disease, those spread via an environmental intermediate rather than (or in addition to) directly between hosts. Recent work from my group has examined how diseases like Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be characterized by this indirect-transmission route, via injection equipment, and how birds can be long-range vectors for infectious diseases.
A newer focus of my research program examines how disease drives sociological phenomena, and vice versa. Recent work investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic served as a “stress test” that exacerbated racial inequalities in incarceration. Current work examines the intersection between the social determinants of health and mathematical epidemiology, and the intersection between history and infectious diseases..
Not unlike drosophila or a laboratory mouse in molecular biology, I think cultural products, relics, and social phenomena are a substrate for nuanced, technical analysis that can reveal aspects about our world, our priorities, and how we interact. Consequently, they are a source of data with respect to what we care about, what we fear, and where we are going. I have published several peer-review publications on tools and devices that aim to make complicated scientific ideas easier to comprehend and connect cultural relics to sophisticated ideas. This includes tools for direct pedagogy in evolutionary genetics that can be implemented into existing courses, and others that could form the basis of new educational initiatives (Figure 3). It is important to note that several funding agencies are now supporting educational-initiatives, and so this area could form the basis of future grant proposals. To this end, I was recently awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneer Award (2023), to examine cultural relics as model systems or social inequalities.
In addition, the great demand for computational skills has increased the urgency for tools to teach them in formal and informal settings. I am involved in developing tools to translate concepts in modeling and computational biology to broader audiences (and have published several peer-reviewed articles on the topic). These include tools for pedagogy in evolutionary genetics and epidemiology, some of which have already been applied in classroom settings.