Dr Olivier Restif

1. Zoonotic disease ecology and epidemiology.

The emergence of new viruses from bats in the last 30 years has drawn the attention of a broad scientific community to the ecology and immunology of this diverse group of mammals. We have established a successful international collaboration with Ghana and Australia to study fruit bats, their ecology, their viruses and their interactions with people. My team also investigates some of the challenges posed by zoonotic and emerging diseases (e.g. rabies, hemorrhagic fevers and COVID-19) in low-and-middle-income countries.

Team members: Elisa Fesce, Imogen Lindsley, Elinor Joax, Rakesh Chand, Liza Hadley.

Collaborators: Raina Plowright (Montana State University), Andrew Cunningham (Institute of Zoology), Freya Jephcott (Centre for the Study of Existential Risk), Richard Suu-Ire (University of Ghana), Alison Peel (Griffith University).

2. Within-host dynamics of bacterial infections.

Laboratory animal models provide important data on the dynamics of bacterial infection inside a living organism, but observations are limited. Using mathematical models, my aim is to extract as much information as possible from experimental data to make inference about the unobserved processes that drive the spatiotemporal dynamics of bacteria. In particular, I try to assess variations in the replication and death rates of bacteria, and their spread within and among tissues.

Team members: Myrto Vlazaki, Ido Ben-Zvi.

My work covers several bacterial pathogens thanks to a fantastic network of collaborators:

- Salmonella enterica, with Andrew Grant and Piero Mastroeni (in this Department), Dirk Bumann (Basel University), Emma Slack and Wolf Hardt (ETH Zurich).

- Bordetella bronchiseptica, with Eric Harvill (University of Georgia) and Monica Cartelle Gestal (Louisiana State University).

- Optimal experimental design, with David Price (University of Melbourne)

Funding: BBSRC, MRC.

3. Mapping multi-drug resistance in bacteria.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to human and animal health. Multi-drug resistance is a particular concern, and is increasingly reported using genetic (sequencing) or phenotypic (growth inhibition assay) tools. However, analysing and interpreting these complex datasets requires sophisticated and ofter tailor-made computational techniques. We are investigating the epidemiology and evolution of multi-drug resistance in pathogenic, commensal and zoonotic bacterial pathogens in farm animals.

Team members: Andrew Balmer, Ruchita Balasubramanian.

Collaborators: Mark Holmes, Lucy Weinert (Cambridge), Jose Vazquez-Boland (Edinburgh).