PhD Studentship: How do species differences in susceptibility influence virus transmission? NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship for September 2025 Entry Ref 5401

Job title:

PhD Studentship: How do species differences in susceptibility influence virus transmission? NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship for September 2025 Entry Ref 5401

Company

University of Exeter

Job description

About the PartnershipThis project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please seeProject detailsFor information relating to the research project please contact the lead Supervisor viaProject Aims and MethodsVirus host shifts – where a virus jumps from one host species to another – are a major source of emerging infectious diseases (e.g. HIV, Ebola, Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, Mpox). Despite the importance of virus host shifts, there is much to learn about why species differ in their susceptibility to novel viruses, and how a virus behaves when it jumps into a new host species.Viruses may spill over into a novel host, but if they fail to develop sustained transmission, they will not persist. Highly susceptible hosts may not always have high levels of transmission and may act as dead-end hosts or result in stuttering chains of transmission. The project will use a tractable multi-host insect-virus system to help understand pathogen emergence. The student will gain skills in: comparative biology using up to 50 species of Drosophila, AI based tools to examine social networks, and in experimentally examining virus epidemics in both lab and semi-natural field experiments. The major aims of the project are:

• Determine why some species transmit viruses more than others and why others are dead-end hosts.
• Test the relative importance of different factors in determining transmission in novel host populations.

TrainingThe DTP offers funding to undertake specialist training relating to the student’s specialist area of research.Background reading and referencesRelevant papershttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004728Up to £19,237 annual stipend

Expected salary

Location

Exeter

Job date

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 04:41:03 GMT

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