DrDavid Jorgensen

I am a Research Associate in the School of Public Health. My work focuses on jointly analysing epidemiological and genetic data to understand the transmission dynamics of viruses. Genetic sequence data can help corroborate traditional epidemiological analyses, providing additional information on the links between virus detections not seen in case data.

I currently work on the transition dynamics of wild and vaccine-derived polioviruses with Dr Isobel Blake and have previosuly worked with Dr Margarita Pons-Salort on non-polio enteroviruses such as EV-D68 and EV-A71, which have the potential to cause severe outcomes such as acute flaccid myelitis and hand foot and mouth disease. I am increasingly interested in the potential for three dimensional modelling of proteins to provide a new data source for phylogenetic analyses, grounded in the biological actions and interactions of proteins rather than their base sequences. I have some ongoing work in this area focused on the capsid surface proteins of EV-D68.

My PhD was on polio phylogeography in the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group. This involved novel estimates and visualisations based on routinely collected wild poliovirus genetic sequences from Paksitan and Afghanistan, the two remaining wild polio endemic countries. During my PhD I also worked on methodological changes to better incorporate spatially and temporally biased sampling data in estimates of viral transmission dynamics and SARS-CoV-2 phylodynamic modelling as part of the Imperial COVID-19 Response Team.

My background is in biology with a masters in epidemiology. I have an interest in spatial epidemiology and mixed effects modelling outside of my current focus on the use of genetic data in epidemiological analysis.