Our research focuses on health, in particular human health and in general in relation to infectious diseases. We tackle these issues with concepts and tools from scientific ecology and evolution. One reason for this is that many of the tools used in epidemiology, for example, were originally developped for population dynamics. Another reason is that microbes evolve rapidly, which affects the way they spread and therefore the strategies for controlling them. The aim of doctors is to cure, but the aim of scientists is to understand. This is why we like to ask rather esoteric questions such as “Why do parasites harm their hosts?”
Below is a list of research projects that are active (labelled as “ongoing”) and those that are less so.
Genomics and modeling of the vaginal microbiota at the epidemiological and within-host levels (ongoing).
We analyse virus genomes to understand the way they spread mainly using methods involving deep learning (ongoing).
We use routine screening data from serologies or PCR tests to explore the epidemiology and biology of human viruses, especially sexually transmitted infections (ongoing).
Studying the within-host ecology and the evolutionary epidemiology of human papillomaviruses to assess whether the vaccines are “evolution-proof”.
Hosts are often co-infections by more than one parasite strain or species and this greatly affects the expression and evolution of virulence.
We study how contact networks between hosts shape infection spread.
We use mathematical modelling approaches from ecology and evolution to understand the role of stochasticity in HPV-associated cancers.
For many parasites, the evolution and maintenance of virulence is intruiguing because it seems to decrease the parasite's epidemiological fitness.
Many infection traits are partly governed by the parasite and are as such “heritable” from one infection to the next. We use phylogenies to estimate this trait heritability.
The emergence of new parasites is a stochastic process because the parasite is rare. We study the interplay between parasite evolution and epidemiology to understand such dynamics.
