aboutSelected awards
This section highlights some of the grants and other awards gained by CIDD researchers.
2006
Agrochemicals, ecosystems and disease
Peter Hudson and Jason Rohr have been awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to examine the effects of agrochemicals — both pesticides and fertilizers — on ecosystems. Their research will focus on wetlands, and will involve a mix of experiments and monitoring. The researchers aim to assess whether classes of agrochemicals can be treated as functional groups in food webs — for example, whether particular groups of pesticides act like predators of certain taxa. External agrochemical inputs could also exacerbate or mitigate the effects of parasitism or disease on host animals such as amphibians. So parasite and pathogen prevalence will be among the response variables being measured.
Grenfell elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Bryan Grenfell has been elected a Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large.
Worms and bioluminescent germs
Sarah Perkins has been awarded a Society for Applied Microbiology Anniversary Fellowship; she will be working in collaboration with Dr Vyv Salisbury at the University of the West of England (U.K.) to investigate how bioluminescence can be used for studying pathogen dynamics. A lux gene — isolated from a bioluminescent organism — can be inserted into a pathogenic bacterium, so that the bacterial cell emits light while it is alive (metabolically active). This light can be detected in real time in vivo and in vitro using low-light intensity imaging systems. Drs Perkins and Salisbury will be using biolumninescence to investigate transmission of Salmonella between insect hosts, and the progression of infection within hosts. They are particularly interested in the possible roles that endoparasitic nematodes may play in vectoring pathogenic bacteria.
2005
Lindberg wins teaching fellowship
Darla Lindberg has been awarded an InSPIRE Academy Fellowship, a Penn State competitive award to faculty who seek to integrate their research into undergraduate courses. Lindberg has developed two new courses in which students use computer software to explore game theoretic principles by building and animating game proofs.
» More (press release)
NSF award to study how parasite interactions affect disease dynamics
Peter Hudson, Ottar Bjørnstad and Eric Harvill have received a 2-year award from the National Science Foundation's Ecology of Infectious Disease (EID) program to examine how interactions between parasites affect disease dynamics in wild mice communities. Field experiments in the USA and Italy, together with mathematical modeling, will be used to investigate how non-linearities in host susceptibility and parasite transmission are driven by two alternative mechanisms:
- Interactions between parasites, mediated via the host's immune system
- Inherent variations among individual hosts
» Read the award summary on the NSF website
NSF award to investigate community ecology
Peter Hudson and Jason Rohr have received an award from the National Science Foundation to study Community ecology as a framework for understanding disease dynamics. The work will focus on amphibian communities parasitized by trematodes. A mix of field surveys, manipulation experiments, immunological assays and epidemiological modeling will be used to determine how biotic stressors (such as competition and predation) and abiotic stressors (such as pollution) interact to affect disease dynamics. This pioneering integration of approaches aims to uncover important general principles governing host-parasite interactions, and so lead to improved forecasting of vector-borne disease outbreaks.
» Read the award summary on the NSF website
Albert honored with Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
Réka Albert recently received an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship for her work in biological and large-scale network modeling and analysis. Sloan Fellowships, awarded since 1955, honor newly appointed tenure-track faculty members who show exceptional promise in research in the physical, life, or social sciences. Among her interdisciplinary research, Dr Albert currently works with other CIDD researchers. For instance, work with Eric Harvill and Jaewook Joo uses qualitative networks to model interactions between pathogens and the host immune system. This work has the potential to identify the most sensitive parts of the host system when challenged with a disease and may lead to the development of better-performing vaccines.
Kirimanjeswara receives award for graduate work
Girish Kirimanjeswara, a graduate student in Eric Harvill's laboratory, has recently received an award of $5000 for outstanding research at the graduate level. Kirimanjeswara studies immunological responses to Bordetella, a group of small gram-negative aerobic bacteria that cause whooping cough in humans and related upper respiratory tract infections in mice.
2004
Grenfell elected to Royal Society
Bryan Grenfell has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (the U.K. equivalent of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences), for his outstanding research achievements. There are approximately 1300 Royal Society Fellows, elected by their peers on the basis of scientific excellence.