I am a postdoc in the microbiology department in the lab of Chris Brooke where I study the population dynamics of influenza virus. I am interested in the phenotypic responses of both virus and host to changes in the influenza virion population. Influenza A virus has a segmented genome and not all virions within a viral population express the full complement of gene segments or have gene segments that contain major deletions. Additionally, not all cells that are infected are infected equally. This variation arises from the number of cells that are singly vs co-infected; cells that receive partial or full complement of viral gene segments; and phenotypic responses including the magnitude of virion production, host immune response, and cell death. I am more quantifying such phenotypic responses and, with the help of infection modeling, defining the functional relationship that varying populations of viral input have on viral and host phenotypic responses.
