Dr Laura Bergner

Research Fellow (Infectious Disease Ecology)

Research interests

I am broadly interested in the ecology and evolution of wildlife and their pathogens, and the ways in which human activities alter the dynamics of these systems. As a molecular ecologist, I am interested in developing and implementing genetic tools to address these questions. My PhD research at the University of Glasgow focused on viral communities in vampire bats, with the aim of better understanding and predicting viral emergence at this well-established interface. I developed and applied metagenomic methods to discover new viruses in non-invasive samples from bats, and combined these data with field studies and host genetic data to identify demographic and environmental factors influencing viral community composition.

In my current role as a Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow I work with Daniel Streicker, Christina Faust and Roman Biek. While I am involved in various projects applying genomic techniques to pathogens and wildlife hosts, my research primarily focuses on the questions:

1. How do age and viral infection interact in wild animals? (combining individual level viral metagenomics and epigenetic ageing of wild bats)

2. Can we use target enrichment sequencing to study pathogens in wild populations? (including rodents and ticks)

Google Scholar

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2010

Number of items: 23.

2025

Griffiths, M. E. et al. (2025) Dynamics of influenza transmission in vampire bats revealed by longitudinal monitoring and a large-scale anthropogenic perturbation. Science Advances, 11(6), eads1267. (doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ads1267) (PMID:39908385) (PMCID:PMC11797540)

2024

Streicker, D. et al. (2024) Developing transmissible vaccines for animal infectious diseases. Science, 384(6693), pp. 275-277. (doi: 10.1126/science.adn3231) (PMID:38669579)

Kuhn, J. H. et al. (2024) ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Kolmioviridae 2024. Journal of General Virology, 105(2), 001963. (doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001963) (PMID:38421275)

2022

Griffiths, M. E. , Broos, A. , Bergner, L. M. , Meza, D. K., Suarez, N. M., Da Silva Filipe, A. , Tello, C., Becker, D. J. and Streicker, D. G. (2022) Longitudinal deep sequencing informs vector selection and future deployment strategies for transmissible vaccines. PLoS Biology, 20(4), e3001580. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001580) (PMID:35439242) (PMCID:PMC9017877)

Becker, D. J. et al. (2022) Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs. Lancet Microbe, (doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00245-7) (PMID:35036970) (PMCID:PMC8747432)

2021

Bergner, L. M. , Becker, D. J., Tello, C., Carrera, J. E. and Streicker, D. G. (2021) Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in the saliva of diverse neotropical bats. Zoonoses and Public Health, 68(3), pp. 271-276. (doi: 10.1111/zph.12808) (PMID:33484236) (PMCID:PMC8569697)

Becker, D. J., Broos, A. , Bergner, L. , Meza, D. K. , Simmons, N. B., Fenton, M. B., Altizer, S. and Streicker, D. (2021) Temporal patterns of vampire bat rabies and host connectivity in Belize. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 68(2), pp. 870-879. (doi: 10.1111/tbed.13754) (PMCID:PMC8246562)

Bergner, L. M. , Mollentze, N. , Orton, R. J. , Tello, C., Broos, A. , Biek, R. and Streicker, D. G. (2021) Characterizing and evaluating the zoonotic potential of novel viruses discovered in vampire bats. Viruses, 13(2), 252. (doi: 10.3390/v13020252) (PMID:33562073) (PMCID:PMC7914986)

Bergner, L. M. , Orton, R. J. , Broos, A. , Tello, C., Becker, D. J., Carrera, J. E., Patel, A. H. , Biek, R. and Streicker, D. G. (2021) Diversification of mammalian deltaviruses by host shifting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(3), e201990711. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.2019907118) (PMID:33397804) (PMCID:PMC7826387)

2020

Griffiths, M. E. , Bergner, L. M. , Broos, A. , Meza, D. K. , Da Silva Filipe, A. , Davison, A. , Tello, C., Becker, D. J. and Streicker, D. G. (2020) Epidemiology and biology of a herpesvirus in rabies endemic vampire bat populations. Nature Communications, 11, 5951. (doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19832-4) (PMID:33230120) (PMCID:PMC7683562)

Bergner, L. M. , Orton, R. J. and Streicker, D. G. (2020) Complete Alphacoronavirus genome sequence from common vampire bats in Peru. Microbiology Resource Announcements, 9(34), e00742- 2. (doi: 10.1128/MRA.00742-20) (PMID:32816981) (PMCID:PMC7441239)

Chesser, R. T., Isler, M. L., Cuervo, A. M., Cadena, C. D., Galen, S. C., Bergner, L. M. , Fleischer, R. C., Bravo, G. A., Lane, D. F. and Hosner, P. A. (2020) Conservative plumage masks extraordinary phylogenetic diversity in the Grallaria rufula (Rufous Antpitta) complex of the humid Andes. Auk, 137(3), ukaa009. (doi: 10.1093/auk/ukaa009)

Bergner, L. M. , Orton, R. J. , Benavides, J. A., Becker, D. J., Tello, C., Biek, R. and Streicker, D. G. (2020) Demographic and environmental drivers of metagenomic viral diversity in vampire bats. Molecular Ecology, 29(1), pp. 26-39. (doi: 10.1111/mec.15250) (PMID:31561274) (PMCID:PMC7004108)

2019

Bergner, L. M. , Orton, R. J. , da Silva Filipe, A. , Shaw, A. E., Becker, D. J., Tello, C., Biek, R. and Streicker, D. G. (2019) Using noninvasive metagenomics to characterize viral communities from wildlife. Molecular Ecology Resources, 19(1), pp. 128-143. (doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.12946) (PMID:30240114) (PMCID:PMC6378809)

2018

Chesser, R. T., Vaseghi, H., Hosner, P. A., Bergner, L. M. , Cortes-Rodriguez, M. N., Welch, A. J. and Collins, C. T. (2018) Molecular systematics of swifts of the genus Chaetura (Aves: Apodiformes: Apodidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 128, pp. 162-171. (doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.07.006) (PMID:30017823)

Becker, D. J., Bergner, L. M. , Bentz, A. B., Orton, R. J. , Altizer, S. and Streicker, D. (2018) Genetic diversity, infection prevalence, and possible transmission routes of Bartonella spp. in vampire bats. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 12(9), e0006786. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006786) (PMID:30260954) (PMCID:PMC6159870)

2017

Volokhov, D.V., Becker, D.J., Bergner, L.M. , Camus, M.S., Orton, R.J. , Chizhikov, V.E., Altizer, S.M. and Streicker, D.G. (2017) Novel hemotropic mycoplasmas are widespread and genetically diverse in vampire bats. Epidemiology and Infection, 145(15), pp. 3154-3167. (doi: 10.1017/S095026881700231X) (PMID:29061202)

2016

Bergner, L. M. , Dussex, N., Jamieson, I. G. and Robertson, B. C. (2016) European colonization, not Polynesian arrival, impacted population size and genetic diversity in the critically endangered New Zealand Kākāpō. Journal of Heredity, 107(7), pp. 593-602. (doi: 10.1093/jhered/esw065) (PMID:27694405)

2015

Kaiser, S. A., Danner, J.E., Bergner, L. and Fleischer, R. C. (2015) Identification and characterization of microsatellite loci in two socially complex old world tropical babblers (Family Timaliidae). BMC Research Notes, 8(1), 707. (doi: 10.1186/s13104-015-1684-9) (PMID:26597161) (PMCID:PMC4657276)

2014

Bergner, L. M. , Jamieson, I. G. and Robertson, B. C. (2014) Combining genetic data to identify relatedness among founders in a genetically depauperate parrot, the Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus). Conservation Genetics, 15(5), pp. 1013-1020. (doi: 10.1007/s10592-014-0595-y)

Sloan, D. B., Triant, D. A., Forrester, N. J., Bergner, L. M. , Wu, M. and Taylor, D. R. (2014) A recurring syndrome of accelerated plastid genome evolution in the angiosperm tribe Sileneae (Caryophyllaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 72, pp. 82-89. (doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.12.004) (PMID:24373909)

2013

Stanback, M. T., Bartholomew, J. E., Bergner, L. M. , Cline, E. L., Helms, P. I., McGovern, P. G., Millican, D. M. and Roth, J. E. (2013) House Wrens alter nest architecture to compensate for cavity vulnerability. Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 125(1), pp. 174-178. (doi: 10.1676/12-061.1)

2010

Bergner, L. M. , Hickman, F. E., Wood, K. H., Wakeman, C. M., Stone, H. H., Campbell, T. J., Lightcap, S. B., Favors, S. M., Aldridge, A. C. and Hales, K. G. (2010) A novel predicted bromodomain-related protein affects coordination between meiosis and spermiogenesis in drosophila and is required for male meiotic cytokinesis. DNA and Cell Biology, 29(9), pp. 487-498. (doi: 10.1089/dna.2009.0989) (PMID:20491580) (PMCID:PMC2931543)

This list was generated on Mon Apr 21 05:35:10 2025 BST.

Jump to: Articles