As a member of the Mathematical Genetics Group
at Oxford University, I am interested in the population structure,
population history and mechanisms of molecular evolution of pathogens, in
particular human herpesviruses (exemplified by herpes simplex viruses type
1 and type 2, responsible for cold sores and genital herpes).
At a time of increasing interest in virus population history and recombination
as a mechanism in virus evolution, I have demonstrated that HSV-1
undergoes recombination at high rates during natural infection in human
populations, that it has strong continent-specific population structure
and that HSV-1 variation has accumulated at timescales comparable to human
populations, showing evidence of particular human migration events.
Recombination in herpesviruses appears to be a direct result of the
molecular mechanism of virus DNA replication combined with epidemiological
factors that limit but do not exclude the possibility of co-infection by
multiple virus strains. Because recombination is widespread rather than
exceptional, these studies of HSV-1 variation have required a range of
non-phylogenetic techniques.
My current project investigates hypotheses about immune selection on HSV-2, a
sexually transmitted virus, in global population samples, comparing
sequence variation at many randomly selected loci with variation at loci
predicted to be affected by cell mediated immunity. In the medium term, I
see studies of potential interactions between human immunogenetic
variation and variation at immunodominant loci of large genome viruses
(and equivalently parasites and bacterial pathogens) as an interesting and
important area of research.
My research interests also include studies of other viruses with a long
history of interaction with human populations. Particular interests are
studies of the molecular variation of hepatitis B virus in geographic
population samples and human cytomegalovirus in global sequence datasets.
We are currently establishing a new laboratory within the Oxford Centre for
Gene Function, with the aim of obtaining genetic variation data from human
and other systems to complement the group’s world-leading theoretical
work. My role is to supervise the work undertaken in our laboratory, as
well as to contribute to the group’s teaching responsibilities in biology,
bioinformatics and practical aspects of molecular and population genetics.
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