Alizon, Samuel, Dr.

ETH Zürich
Dr. Samuel Alizon
Institut f. Integrative Biologie
CHN H 76.1
Universitätstrasse 16
8092 Zürich

Phone: +41 44 632 89 76
E-Mail: 

Research interests

I am an evolutionary biologist and I am particularly interested in the evolution of infectious diseases. Here are some of the topics I am currently working on.

• Within-host evolution: Many diseases like HIV or hepatitis C evolve rapidly in their host, which can affect the course of the infection and also between-host dynamics.
• Nested models: I use this approach, which combines models of within-host dynamics and epidemiological models, to study parasite evolution.
• Virulence evolution: Why do parasite harm their host? This question, which looks trivial, is actually one of the most studied in evolutionary biologists. It raises several problems at the biological (What is virulence?) and at the epidemiological level (Which processes will select for lower/higher levels of virulence?).
• Evolutionary epidemiology: This area of research originates from the fact that disease evolution can affect the course of an epidemics. Conversely, the epidemiology shapes the selection pressure exerted on the parasite. This illustrates the necessity of combining epidemiology and evolution.
• Evolution of cooperation: Altruistic behaviours have been shown to have a genetic component in some species (for bacteria or viruses). I use inclusive fitness approach to study the emergence and maintenance of such costly behaviours.

Further details on my research interests.

Publication list

Brief CV

Since Jan. 2010, I am a Chargé de Recherche (tenure researcher) at the CNRS in Montpellier, France. Please check my new website.

From Aug. 2008 to Dec. 2009 I was an ETH fellow in Sebastian Bonhoeffer's Theoretical Biology group.

From Nov. 2006 to July 2008 I was an adjunct Assistant Professor with a Coleman Fellowship at Queen's University (Canada), where I worked with Dr. Troy Day and Pr. Peter Taylor.

I did a PhD in Ecology and evolution at Paris 6 University, under the supervision of Dr. Minus van Baalen, from Sept. 2003 to Oct. 2006.

Links to some friends and colleagues

I also have another website at Queen's University: http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~samuel/.