NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Evolution of Increased Parasite Transmission Dispersion

NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：寄生虫传播扩散增加的演变

• 批准号: 2208895
• 负责人: Hannelore MacDonald
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: MacDonald, Hannelore A
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2208895&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; Evolution

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research aims to explain the phenomenon in epidemics known as transmission dispersion, where most new infections are transmitted from relatively few infected individuals. For example, roughly 10% of COVID-19 cases cause 80% of new COVID-19 cases. This variation could be due to differences among hosts, for example, in how much infected people cough. Most research to date has focused on variability in host responses to infections. However, the pathogen itself (e.g., SARS-CoV-2 virus) can also impact transmission dispersion. For example, distinct strains of pathogens can drive different numbers of new infections. Increases in the number of new hosts that pathogens transmit to is commonly a result of adaptive evolution (e.g., new SARS-CoV-2 variants). The Fellow hypothesizes that evolution can also increase transmission dispersion when pathogens adapt to variable host populations. Specifically, pathogens could adapt to specialize on highly infectious hosts. However, this might come at the cost of transmitting less effectively from the larger but less-infectious host group. In this way, pathogen adaptation could further skew transmission events so that most new infections are transmitted from a minority of infectious hosts. The study’s results will help to predict when host variability drives the adaptation of pathogens with highly dispersed transmission; this will help to improve the accuracy of models that predict the course of epidemics. In addition, the Fellow will develop and teach educational modules on pathogen ecology and evolution to Philadelphia School System students with the aim of increasing students’ sense of belonging and confidence in their abilities in science. The Fellow will determine whether parasite adaptation increases transmission dispersion by (1) developing mathematical models to generate theoretical predictions and (2) testing predictions using an experimental system based on the bacterium E. coli and its viral pathogen, phage lambda. Through this training, the Fellow will gain essential skills to establish a combined theoretical and experimental research program focused on parasite evolutionary ecology and epidemiological dynamics. Further, the Fellow’s outreach skills will improve by developing and teaching educational modules on pathogen ecology and evolution to K-12 students that will increase their confidence in doing science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该行动资助了2022财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，即调查基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这项研究旨在解释流行病中被称为传播扩散的现象，即大多数新感染是从相对较少的感染者身上传播的。例如，大约10%的COVID-19病例导致80%的新COVID-19病例。这种差异可能是由于宿主之间的差异，例如，感染者咳嗽的程度。迄今为止，大多数研究都集中在宿主对感染反应的变异性上。然而，病原体本身（例如，SARS-CoV-2病毒）也会影响传播扩散。例如，不同的病原体菌株可能导致不同数量的新感染。病原体传播到的新宿主数量的增加通常是适应性进化的结果（例如，新的SARS-CoV-2变种）。该研究员假设，当病原体适应可变的宿主种群时，进化也可以增加传播扩散。具体来说，病原体可以适应高度传染性的宿主。然而，这可能是以从更大但传染性更低的宿主群体传播效率更低为代价的。通过这种方式，病原体适应可能会进一步扭曲传播事件，使大多数新的感染是从少数传染性宿主传播的。该研究的结果将有助于预测宿主变异性何时驱动高度分散传播的病原体的适应;这将有助于提高预测流行病过程的模型的准确性。此外，该研究员将为费城学校系统的学生开发和教授病原体生态学和进化的教育模块，目的是增加学生的归属感和对他们科学能力的信心。该研究员将通过以下方式确定寄生虫适应是否会增加传播扩散：（1）开发数学模型以产生理论预测;（2）使用基于细菌E的实验系统测试预测。大肠杆菌及其病毒病原体λ噬菌体。通过这次培训，研究员将获得基本技能，建立一个理论和实验相结合的研究计划，重点是寄生虫进化生态学和流行病学动态。此外，该研究员的推广技能将通过开发和教授K-12学生病原体生态学和进化的教育模块来提高，这将增加他们从事科学的信心。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。