People
Faculty
Henrik Salje
Core FacultyHenrik Salje established the Pathogen Dynamics Group in 2020. He and his team were previously at Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. His research combines the development of analytical approaches with empirical research to better understand the transmission dynamics of different infectious diseases with the ultimate goal of helping guide control efforts. In particular, this involves working with genetic, antigenic, and epidemiological data alongside information on how populations behave, interact with their environment. He has an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University, a Master's degree in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a PhD in Epidemiology, also from Johns Hopkins.
PostDocs
Lin Wang
PostDocResearch Associate in the Pathogen Dynamics Group. He is studying the role of antigenic and genetic diversity of dengue virus in driving the transmission and population risk in Thailand. He is interested in system immunology, metagenomics, serology, statistical epidemiology, and mathematical modeling, with applications in arbovirus (e.g. dengue) and emerging diseases (e.g. A/H1N1, COVID-19). He was a chargé de recherche in the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease Unit, Institut Pasteur, and postdoc fellow in the School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong. He has a PhD in Electronic Engineering from Fudan University, MSc, and BSc in Physics from Nankai University and Southeast University.
Angkana T. Huang
PostDocAngkana, aka Hat, studies factors that shape infectious disease transmission through computational methods to inform public health policies. These include characteristics of the infectious disease agents, characteristics and changes in the host population, as well as interactions between multiple infectious agents. She has an undergraduate degree in Industrial Design from Chulalongkorn University, a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Mahidol University, a PhD in Biology from University of Florida, and was a Data Analyst and Bioinformatics Technologist at Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences.
PhD Students
Oscar Cortés Azuero
PhD studentOscar's work focuses on studying the spatial spread and the diversity of different pathogens using genetic data. One of his main interests is integrating vector and/or host mobility data to phylogeographic questions. He studies Nipah virus and arboviruses in South and Southeast Asia. Oscar obtained his Master's degree in Engineering from the École Centrale de Lille in France.
Noémie Lefrancq
PhD studentNoemie's work focuses on the integration of genetic and spatial data to better understand the spread, maintenance, and control of pathogens. She is co-supervised by Henrik Salje at the Department of Genetics and Julian Parkhill at the Department of Veterinary Medicine. She is working with datasets of Bordetella pertussis genomes from throughout France as well as other European countries in a collaborative project with the national reference center for Pertussis in France. She also works with Listeria monocytogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae and dengue virus.
Megan O'Driscoll
PhD studentMegan's work involves the development and application of mathematical models to aid the interpretation of serological data, with a focus on arbovirus transmission and immune dynamics. She is also interested in the challenges posed for robust epidemiological analysis of emerging pathogens.
Mariana Perez Duque
PhD studentMariana is a medical doctor, specialised in Public Health Medicine, and a field epidemiologist, having previously worked with MSF. She is working on chikungunya disease dynamics, with a focus on the Asian continent. She has a strong expertise in field epidemiology and travel medicine and is interested in designing and evaluating strategies for public health response to (re-) emerging pathogens.
Natcha C. Jitsuk
PhD studentNatcha is a visiting student in the Pathogen Dynamic Group for 12 months. She is doing her Ph.D. at Mahidol University. Her previous work is an investigation of the impact of vaccination strategies on the probability of outbreak extinction by employing COVID-19 transmission as a case study. Currently, her work focuses on the reconstruction of unseen COVID-19 transmission events from viral sequences. She will apply the spatiotemporally structured phylogenetic framework to consider the individual transmission events by using the generation time distribution for COVID-19.
Raymond Cheng
PhD studentRaymond is a PhD student co-supervised by Stephen Bentley at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, John Lees at the EBI and Henrik Salje at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in studying various modes of evolution in pathogenic bacteria and how they shape different population structure. He is working on identifying genetics variants on the invasiveness of Streptococcus pneumoniae and forecasting disease population from carriage population.
Lab Management
Fariha Jawed
Lab ManagerFariha is a lab manger at PDG cambridge. She is responsible for managing the finance and funding of the group. She work closely with Gabriel in his project for 'Characterizing the impact of vaccine in combatting chikungunya in low- and middle-income countries'.
MPhil Student
Cayla Janse-Van-Rensburg
MPhil StudentCayla is an MPhil student in Population Health Sciences who is currently working on her dissertation project. With a background in industrial engineering, she is particularly interested in the application of modelling techniques to tackle public health problems. Her research centres around developing an optimal sampling strategy for hospital patients to estimate infection risks in various communities.
Julia Marshall
MPhil StudentJulia is an MPhil student in Population Health Sciences who is interested in the spatiotemporal dynamics of infectious diseases and the integration of spatial and genetic data. She is conducting her dissertation research under the supervision of Dr. Henrik Salje and Dr. Kate Baker. Julia’s research focuses on the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant Shigella spp. in the United Kingdom.
Claire Hunter
MPhil StudentClaire is an MPhil student in Population Health Sciences. She is interested in the use of serological data to understand disease risk and protection factors for various pathogens. Her dissertation aims to understand the role of human genetics in the serological immune response to dengue virus.
Part III Students
Dani Linton
Part III StudentPast Lab Members
Theodora Anderson
Lab Manager2020-2021
Sohaib Ansari
Part II Student2021
Etienne Dean
Part II Student2021
Raina Jia
Master's student2020-2021
Zheyuan Yang
Part III Student2021
Rachel Sippy
Post Doc2020-2022
Francesca Edrich
Masters StudentAdrien Mitard
InternAdrien's work focuses on the B-cell, T-cell and antibody responses facing an infection. It will require statistical analysis of data coming from a dengue epidemic in Thailand. Adrien obtained his Master's degree in biomedical Engineering from the Ecole CentraleSupelec in Paris.
Wei Wang
Post DocWei’s research interests include the transmission dynamics, epidemiological parameters, and evaluation of interventions for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases with public health importance, e.g., COVID-19, measles and human with infection of novel animal influenza virus.
Sam Allen
MPhil StudentLorena Duret
InternLoréna is a master student here for a 6-month internship. HerZ work focuses on the impact of vaccination and borders on the genetic diversity of viruses. She is supervised by Noémie Lefrancq and is working with datasets of dengue virus genomes from Thailand and neighboring countries.
Sophie Belman
PhD studentSophie is a PhD student co-supervised by Stephen Bentley at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Henrik Salje at the University of Cambridge. She is working towards understanding global spatiotemporal dynamics of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal) populations. The migratory pathways and connectivity of pneumococcal populations has implications for vaccine implementation and development. Sophie obtained her MSc in Medical Microbiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.