Tue 06 Jun 14:00: BSU Seminar: 'Bayesian analysis of diffusion-driven multi-type epidemic models with application to COVID-19' This will be an online seminar. To register to attend, please click on this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register...
We consider a flexible Bayesian evidence synthesis approach to model the age-specific transmission dynamics of COVID -19 based on daily age-stratified mortality counts. The temporal evolution of transmission rates in populations containing multiple types of individual is reconstructed via an appropriate dimension-reduction formulation driven by independent diffusion processes assigned to the key epidemiological parameters. A suitably tailored Susceptible-Exposed-Infected -Removed (SEIR) compartmental model is used to capture the latent counts of infections and to account for fluctuations in transmission influenced by phenomena like public health interventions and changes in human behaviour. We analyze the outbreak of COVID -19 in Greece and Austria and validate the proposed model using the estimated counts of cumulative infections from a large-scale seroprevalence survey in England. This is joint work with Nikolaos Demiris (AUEB), Konstantinos Kalogeropoulos (LSE) and Ioannis Ntzoufras (AUEB).
arXiv link: https://aps.arxiv.org/abs/2211.15229 CRAN : https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Bernadette/index.html Github repository: https://github.com/bernadette-eu/Bernadette
This will be an online seminar. To register to attend, please click on this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ocO6qrTsiH9V3mlmvd_EOYT1sTBOKOmUZ
- Speaker: Dr Lampros Bouranis, Athens University of Economics and Business
- Tuesday 06 June 2023, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Online Seminar.
- Series: MRC Biostatistics Unit Seminars; organiser: Alison Quenault.
Wed 15 Nov 13:00: Gene-based vaccines to combat bacterial diseases, hurdles and opportunities’ Canceled - to be re-scheduled
With the recent success of adenoviral vaccines against Ebola and SARS -CoV-2, the potential of this platform in the fight against outbreak pathogens is being realised. This technology has proven impact in high income countries and is also suitable for large scale manufacture and use in low-and-middle income countries, as demonstrated by the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against SARS -CoV-2. The potential of viral-vectors to induce T Helper type 1 and high antibody responses in humans makes the use of this approach attractive in efforts to combat the disease and disability caused by bacterial pathogens. However, the case for their use in bacterial vaccines is less clear: the expression of a bacterial protein in a eukaryotic cell may impact on the antigen localization, induce unwanted glycosylation or affect protein conformation, and this is also true if using the mRNA vaccine platform. The potential and challenges of adenoviral vectors was explored against two bacterial diseases, capsular group B meningococcus and the plague. While all antigens and combinations were able to induce high antibody responses after a single dose immunisation in mice, not all were able to induce functional antibodies. We show that a subset of outer membrane proteins from Gram-negative bacteria can be incorporated into gene-based vectors for novel vaccine development. While our work highlights the challenges inherent in developing novel vaccines using this technology and can be applied to mRNA, the successful progression of two novel bacterial vaccines to clinical development underlines the potential of these platforms for vaccine development against bacterial diseases.
Canceled - to be re-scheduled
- Speaker: Professor Christine Rollier, Professor of Vaccinology, University of Surrey
- Wednesday 15 November 2023, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: LT2.
- Series: Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine; organiser: Fiona Roby.
Thu 22 Jun 12:00: Mosquito immunity defines flavivirus vector tropism and emergence potential
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Kevin Maringer. Pirbright Institute, UK.
- Thursday 22 June 2023, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Sackler Lecture Theatre, Level 7, CIMR, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
- Series: Cambridge Virology Seminars; organiser: Dr Nerea Irigoyen.
Thu 08 Jun 12:00: The virome of insect vectors
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Ioannis Karakasiliotis. Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
- Thursday 08 June 2023, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Sackler Lecture Theatre, Level 7, CIMR, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
- Series: Cambridge Virology Seminars; organiser: Dr Nerea Irigoyen.