The management of emerging infectious disease outbreaks is a defining problem of our ever more mobile and connected world. Pathogen genomes contain a remarkable amount of information about disease transmission, and genomic technologies are being used increasingly to investigate new outbreaks. Yet the contribution that genomics can make to infectious disease surveillance is only beginning to be appreciated by public health agencies.

Professor Oliver Pybus, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Pandemic Genomics, will outline the opportunities and challenges ahead as we try to integrate genomic data into epidemic control efforts.

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About the speaker

Professor Oliver PybusOliver Pybus is Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Pandemic Genomics; Principal Investigator of the Institute for Emerging Infections at the Oxford Martin School; Professor of Evolution & Infectious Disease at the Department of Zoology; Professorial Fellow of New College; and Chief Editor of the open access journal Virus Evolution.

He investigates the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of infectious diseases, particularly human pathogenic RNA viruses. He also develops new methods of genetic analysis based on phylogenetic, phylodynamic and population genetic theory. More broadly, he is interested in topics at the interface between ecology and evolution.