Saenz, Roberto A., Dr.

Research Interests

General research interest on the study of infectious disease dynamics via mathematical modelling.

Projects currently under way:

Emergence of drug resistance

• Role of within-host HIV viral dynamics on the emergence of drug resistant strains at the population level.
• Role of back mutations (mutations from drug-sensitive to drug-resistant strains) on the emergence of drug resistance at the individual level (with J. Kitayimbwa, Makerere University, Uganda).
• Identification of conditions that would lead to a successful Structured Treatment Interruptions therapy (with J. Kitayimbwa, Makerere University, Uganda).

Innate immune response to influenza virus

• Study of the bimodal pattern commonly observed in virus shedding curves of influenza-infected individuals; focusing on the switch between the innate and adaptive immune response of the host.
• Virus dynamics of influenza in pig tracheal explants (with F. Nunes et al, University of Cambridge).

Brief CV

• March 2011-present. Postdoc (with Sebastian Bonhoeffer) at Institute for Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
• October 2006-February 2011. BBSRC Postdoctoral Research Associate (with Julia Gog) at Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK.
• May-September 2006. BBSRC Postdoctoral Research Associate (with Julia Gog) at Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK.
• August 2003-May 2006. PhD in Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences (with Herb Hethcote) at Department of Mathematics, The University of Iowa, USA.
• August 2001-July 2003. M.S. in Mathematics (with Miguel Argaez & Leticia Velazquez) at Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, USA.

Publications

• S. C. Essen, S. M. Brookes, L. Outtrim, D. J. Alexander, R. M. Irvine, R. A. Saenz, J. R. Gog, M. Iqbal, J. W. McCauley, I. H. Brown, Variable susceptibility of domestic poultry to H7N1: Ducks are more resistant than chickens and turkeys to both low pathogenicity and highly pathogenic avian influenza, in preparation.
• R. A. Saenz, S. C. Essen, S. M. Brookes, M. Iqbal, J. L. N. Wood, B. T. Grenfell, J. W. McCauley, I. H. Brown, J. R. Gog, Quantifying transmission of highly pathogenic and low pathogenicity H7N1 avian influenza in turkeys, submitted.
• S. M. Brookes, A. Germundsson, C. Inman, M. Bailey, S. P. Dunham, G. A. White, F. Garcon, A. Nunez, R. A. Saenz, J. R. Gog, C. A. Donnelly, K-C. Chang, COSI, J. L. N. Wood, I. H. Brown, Modelling human pandemic H1N1/09 influenza in swine: comparative pathogenesis of early United Kingdom and North American isolates, submitted.
• J. M. Kitayimbwa, J. Y. T. Mugisha, R. A. Saenz, The role of backward mutations on the within-host dynamics of HIV, submitted.
• A. J. K. Conlan, K. T. D. Eames, J. A. Gage, J. C. Von Kirchbach, J. V. Ross, R. A. Saenz, J. R. Gog, Measuring social networks in British primary schools through scientific engagement, Proc. Roy. Soc. B: Biological Sciences 278 (2011) 1467 -1475.
• R. A. Saenz, M. Quinlivan, D. Elton, S. MacRae, A. S. Blunden, J. A. Mumford, J. M. Daly, P. Digard, A. Cullinane, B. T. Grenfell, J. McCauley, J. L. N. Wood, J. R. Gog, Dynamics of influenza virus infection and pathology, J. of Virology 84 (2010) 3974-3983.
• R. A. Saenz, H. W. Hethcote, G. C. Gray, Confined animal feeding operations as amplifiers of influenza, Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 6 (2006) 338-346.
• R. A. Saenz and H. W. Hethcote, Competing species models with an infectious disease, Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering 3 (2006) 219-235.
• A.-A. Yakubu, R. Saenz, J. Stein, L. E. Jones, Monarch butterfly spatially discrete advection model, Mathematical Biosciences 190 (2004) 183-202.