Oliver Pybus
Contact information
01865 (2) 71274
Oliver Pybus
Professor of Evolution & Infectious Disease
- Professorial Fellow of New College
Ancestry and diversification are processes unique to biology that shape every aspect of living systems, from individual cells to whole ecosystems. Using genome sequencing and other technologies we can now investigate these processes in unprecedented detail, and use the insights gained to tackle global challenges such as biodiversity loss, food production, and emerging epidemics. I feel fortunate to be a biologist at such an exciting time in the subject's history.
Most of my research concerns the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of infectious disease. Many pathogens evolve so rapidly that their ecology and evolution are coupled, requiring new inter-disciplinary methods of inquiry. Understanding this joint behaviour, sometimes called phylodynamics, is fundamental to applied problems including outbreak surveillance, vaccine design, and the evolution of drug resistance. I contribute to the theoretical development of phylodynamics and its application to public health and other fields. I develop new computational methods for the evolutionary analysis of genetic sequence data. More generally I am interested in topics at the interface of ecology and evolution, including molecular ecology, ancient DNA, portable genomics, spatial ecology, and statistical genetics.
Recent publications
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Identification of evolutionary trajectories shared across human betacoronaviruses.
Journal article
Escalera-Zamudio M. et al, (2023), Genome biology and evolution
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Investigation of hospital discharge cases and SARS-CoV-2 introduction into Lothian care homes
Journal article
Cotton S. et al, (2023), Journal of Hospital Infection, 135, 28 - 36
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Trends and spatiotemporal patterns of arboviral spread in Mexico and Central America
Preprint
Gutierrez B. et al, (2023)
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Bidirectional movement of emerging H5N8 avian influenza viruses between Europe and Asia via migratory birds since early 2020.
Journal article
Zhang G. et al, (2023), Mol Biol Evol
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Seasonal dynamics of the wild rodent faecal virome
Journal article
Raghwani J. et al, (2022), Molecular Ecology