Rowan Durrant

Email: r.durrant.1@research.gla.ac.uk

GitHub: RowanDurrant

Google Scholar: Rowan Durrant

ResearchGate: Rowan Durrant

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9742-2052

Research title: Genetic Analysis of the Rabies Virus

Research Summary

Research Summary

My PhD project focuses on using a simulation framework to explore rabies evolution. My first chapter investigates whether variable incubation periods combined with differences in replication rate over the course of a rabies infection can affect how well the molecular clock model can approximate rabies evolution. This chapter is now available as a preprint here. My other chapters explore lineage emergence, host adaptation, and using genomic data to estimate outbreak sizes.

 

Funding: EPSRC/MVLS PhD studentship

 

Academic History

2021 - present: PhD Infectious Diseases - University of Glasgow - "Metapopulations and infectious disease dynamics"

2019 - 2020: MRes Biosciences - Swansea University - "Factors driving the spread of Devil Facial Tumour Disease on a regional scale"

2016 - 2019: BSc Genetics - Swansea University - "A statistical model to simulate scrapie outbreaks in sheep (Ovis aries)"

Publications

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Supervisors

Conference

  • Ecological and Evolutionary Drivers of Pathogen Emergence Symposium 2023 : “Rabies virus mutations affecting evolutionary rate and host specificity” (talk)
  • Infectious Disease Dynamics Conference 2023 : “Can rabies lineage diversity be used to estimate case sequencing rates?” (poster)
  • Virus Genomics and Evolution Conference 2022 : “Determining the relationship between time, transmission and the evolution of the rabies virus” (poster)