Virus evolution in immunocompromised hosts
Supervisor: Dr Chris Illigworth, School of Infection & Immunity
Rotation project:
Evidence from studies of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 have highlighted the potential importance of virus evolution in immunocompromised hosts for the general evolution of virus populations. This suggests the importance of studying the within-host evolution of viruses in such hosts, but a number of factors, such as the complex structure of virus populations, makes this difficult.
In this project we will use a variety of approaches to study the evolution of the influenza virus in an immunocompromised host, based on genome sequence data collected from a clinical case. We will use new software to look for evidence of within-host population structure before identifying changes accumulated in the viral genome over time. We will identify variants potentially driving evolutionary change in the virus, and examine the evolution of the virus in the context of the global influenza population at the time.
This project aims to provide an introduction to a variety of topics, including genomics, virus evolution, computational biology and bioinformatics, alongside basic training in computational biology. Some previous experience of genomics, computing, statistics, or mathematical modelling would be beneficial, but not essential, for this rotation project.