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May - Mike Famulare

Speaker: Mike Famulare

Hello everyone, our May event will feature Mike Farmulare from the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM).

Event Details

Date: May 10th

Time: 6pm

Location: BCCRC ground floor lecture theatre. 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver BC

Title: Beyond reversion: evolutionary epidemiology of vaccine-derived poliovirus transmission

Abstract: Mass vaccination with the attenuated oral polio vaccine (OPV) has prevented millions of cases of childhood paralysis over the last sixty years, but it has also created a unique model system for emerging human pathogens. Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) outbreaks occur rarely, at a rate of roughly one per year per hundred million doses delivered. The low cVDPV emergence rate contrasts with the high reversion rates of attenuating substitutions in OPV recipients. I will discuss how poliovirus genetic sequencing and epidemiological data work together to help us understand the separation of scales between cVDPV emergence and its underlying microevolution. The evidence highlights that virulence, within-host fitness, and between-host transmissibility are not equivalent.

Bio: Mike Famulare is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) in Bellevue, WA, where he uses mathematical modeling to study infectious disease transmission and surveillance. Since joining IDM, he has worked closely with partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to assess the impacts of polio vaccination policies on poliovirus transmission in different settings. He also conducts research on the design and interpretation of genomic and environmental surveillance data for infectious diseases. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Washington, where he focused on adaptive single neuron computation. Before moving to Seattle, he earned a BS in Physics Education from New York University and taught briefly at Stuyvesant High School.

Website: Mike Famulare at IDM

Please note:

Trainees are invited to meet with the VanBUG speaker for open discussion of both science and career paths. This takes place 5:00-5:45pm in either the Boardroom or Lunchroom on the ground floor of the BCCRC


Introductory Speaker: Rashedul Islam (PhD Candidate, Hirst lab, UBC)

Title: Molecular characterization of the role of RUNX1 in Notch signalling in T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL)

Webcast Link: http://vidyoreplay.computecanada.ca/replay/webcastShow.html?key=TAKdbjoDvIqKdLn

(This technology is brought to you by Compute Canada and WestGrid with support from PHSA Telehealth)