Collaborative Research: Evolutionary dynamics of invasion and escape in hierarchical systems

当生命形式入侵新的栖息地或经历突然的环境变化时，它们会发现自己处于适应新环境或灭绝的竞赛中。特殊的挑战可能来自于生命的等级组织：在生物组织的一个等级上对生物体有益的进化变化可能会对另一个等级的生物体有害。例如，病毒在宿主内的快速繁殖可能导致迅速死亡，从而减少向其他宿主的传播。该项目将发展新的进化逃避理论，重点是跨多个尺度的适应。这项研究将把重点放在流感或艾滋病毒等新出现的病毒上，并将建立一个框架来理解为什么有些病毒从动物宿主跳到人类身上后就灭绝了，而另一些病毒则适应了人类宿主并开始流行。研究结果也将适用于从耐抗生素细菌、肿瘤生长到耐杀虫剂杂草或昆虫等一系列问题。除了将其应用于诸如病原体出现和癌症等重要问题之外，该项目还将为社会带来许多直接利益。来自代表性不足群体的本科生将通过暑期实习和学期项目获得研究经验。研究生和博士后将接受跨学科培训和职业指导。这个项目的概念将被纳入几门新的本科课程，以及生命科学中的微积分和建模教科书。非洲的研究生将接受短期课程和相关研究项目的教学和指导。最后，通过现有的合作和参与美国国立卫生研究院赞助的传染病工作组，将与公共卫生研究人员和政策制定者分享对病毒进化的见解。

When life forms invade new habitats or experience sudden environmental changes, they can find themselves in a race between adapting to the new conditions or going extinct. Particular challenges can arise from the hierarchical organization of life: evolutionary changes that help an organism at one scale of biological organization may hurt it at another. For example, faster reproduction of viruses within a host may cause rapid death and hence reduce transmission to other hosts. This project will develop new theory for evolutionary escape with an emphasis on adaptation across multiple scales. The research will focus on emerging viruses such as influenza or HIV, and will develop a framework to understand why some viruses go extinct after they jump into humans from their animal reservoirs, while others adapt to human hosts and start pandemics. The results will also be applicable to problems ranging from antibiotic-resistant bacteria to tumor growth to pesticide-resistant weeds or insects. Beyond its applications to important problems such as pathogen emergence and cancer, this project will have many direct benefits to society. Undergraduate students from under-represented groups will gain research experience through summer internships and term projects. Graduate and postdoctoral students will receive inter-disciplinary training and career mentorship. Concepts from this project will be incorporated into several new undergraduate courses and into a textbook on calculus and modeling in the life sciences. Graduate students in Africa will be taught and mentored in short-courses and associated research projects. Finally, insights into viral evolution will be shared with public health researchers and policy-makers via existing collaborations and participation in NIH-sponsored infectious disease working groups.