Respiratory infections

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Respiratory Infections: Epidemiology, evolution and ecology of respiratory virusesDr Pablo Murcia, Lead Investigator, in collaboration with Dr Louise Matthews (Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow); Dr Rory Gunson (West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre); Dr Jim McMenamin (Health Protection Scotland); Dr Robert Gifford, (MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research).Respiratory infections are the most common disease of humans and a large proportion of them is caused by viral pathogens that include influenza A and B viruses, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, coronaviruses, rhinoviruses, adenoviruses and parainfluenzaviruses. From an ecological perspective, the respiratory tract could be considered the ecosystem that the aforementioned viruses cohabitate. Notably, respiratory viruses have been traditionally studied in isolation, an approach that does not capture the interactions among viruses that commonly exist and are likely to play a role in disease presentation and spread. Here we will study respiratory viruses as a group in order to understand how virus-virus interactions impact on their evolution and epidemiology. To this end we will first examine the epidemiology of viral respiratory infections in the Glasgow population. Further we will sequencethe genomes of a large number of respiratory viruses derived from patients in order to link changes in virus genetic composition with patterns of virus circulation. Results from this work will have profound public health implications, from improved forecasting of epidemics to the design of novel vaccination strategies against the most common pathogens of humans.