Population Biology of Pathogens – Regoes Group
In our group, we investigate the population dynamics of infectious disease agents, mostly within their hosts. The basic question our research addresses is:
- How to pathogens replicate and diversify within their hosts
- To what extent is their replication and diversification impacted by the immune system or by drug treatment? Here, the evolution of immune escape and drug resistance are our main focus.
We address these questions using mathematical models in close collaboration with empirical groups. We have been working on a range of viruses (HIV, SIV, and LCMV), and bacteria (E. coli, S. Typhimurium, S. aureus).
Our main collaborators are:
- external pageKarin Metznercall_made (University Hospital Zurich) on HIV-1 diversification in vitro
- external pageJens Rolffcall_made (Institute of Biology - Zoology, Free University Berlin) on the pharmacodynamics of antimicrobial peptides
- Wolf-Dietrich Hardt (Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich) and Emma Wetter Slack (Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich) on the colonization of mice by S. Typhimurium
- external pageAlexandra Trkolacall_made (Institute of Medical Virology, University of Zurich) on HIV entry and neutralization
From time to time, we branch out into mathematical epidemiology. In this context, the evolutionary aspects of the spread of the pathogen are our main focus. For example, we have been working on the role of adaptation in the emergence of new infectious diseases, and studied the problem of drug resistance during influenza pandemics.
More recently, our group has started with experimental work: we are conducting evolution experiments with bacteriophages to biologically assess phylodynamic inference methods.
Former group members
- Eva Bons is now a postdoc with Melissa Penny at the SwissTPH.
- Frederic Bertels is now a quasi-independent researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Ploen.
- Nathanael Hoze moved back to Paris for a postdoc position at the Institute Pasteur.
- Victor Garcia completed his PhD in 2014, and went on to conduct postdoctoral work at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Berne, and in Stanford. He now has a position at the Zuricher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
- George Shirreff left for a postdoc position at Imperial College, then moved to the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and is now at the Institut Pasteur.
- Claude Loverdo has moved on to a permanent position at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.
- Carsten Magnus received his PhD in 2010. After that he did a postdoc at Oxford University with Angela McLean, at the Institute of Medical Virology in Zurich with Alexandra Trkola, and in the group of Tanja Stadler at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering of the ETH Zurich. He is now a data scientist at Roche.
- Frederik Graw graduated 2010, worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory with Alan Perelson and Ruy Ribeiro, and is now a group leader at BIOMS in Heidelberg.