NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

Brown Leone M, Watertown MA

Investigators

Abstract

NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biology combine research and training components to prepare young scientists for careers in emerging areas where biology intersects with other scientific disciplines, in this case mathematics and physical sciences. Fellows are expected to be leaders of the nation's scientific workforce of the future. This fellowship to Leone M. Brown supports a research and training plan to investigate how long distance migration influences animal immunity and infectious disease dynamics. The host institution is the University of Georgia and the sponsoring scientists are Dr. Sonia Altizer and Dr. Richard Hall. Training objectives include epidemiological mathematical modeling, data management, and laboratory skills to determine animal infection status and immune function. The Fellow plans workshops to train professionals and students in statistical analysis of ecological data and educational outreach to predominantly low-income K-12 schools to communicate how concepts in mathematics can address real-life problems in ecology, conservation biology and public health. This fellowship is funded jointly by the Office of International and Integrative Activities and the Directorate for Biological Sciences. Animal migrations can alter infectious disease dynamics through effects on host immunity and exposure to pathogens. Human activities transform landscapes and create barriers to animal migration, causing some animals to migrate shorter distances or form sedentary populations. Because migratory animals can transport pathogens that infect humans, understanding interactions between migration and infection dynamics, and how pathogens respond to the loss of migration, can help forecast changes in disease risk for humans and wildlife. This project focuses on host characteristics and pathogen dynamics in Tyrannid flycatchers, a diverse group of birds with migratory and sedentary populations across the Americas. Field data on infection prevalence and immune function are being combined with statistical and mathematical models to estimate pathogen transmission and host survival across the annual cycle. This research promises to improve understanding of the role of animal migration in infectious disease spread, with broad relevance to other migratory species.