Dr Liam Brierley
- Research Fellow (Virology)
- Affiliate Researcher (School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine)
telephone:
0141 330 6257
email:
Liam.Brierley@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
He/him/his
Room 405, Sir Michael Stoker Building, Garscube Campus, 464 Bearsden Road, Glasgow, G61 1QH
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3026-4723Research interests
My research interests broadly focus on the application of newly emerging data, methods, and computational technologies to understand the cross-species transmission of RNA viruses. This covers their:
- ecological contexts (e.g., statistical modelling of extent of host range and geographic range)
- evolutionary dynamics (e.g., machine learning on nucleotide and protein sequences to predict viral traits - 'genotype to phenotype')
- systematic data gaps (e.g., large language models and data mining tools to automate extraction of analysis-ready data on host-virus relationships)
- public health impact (e.g., risk assessment frameworks for pandemic preparedness).
Each of these is conducted with a 'macro' perspective, i.e., looking for broad-scale patterns across a large diversity of vertebrate RNA virus families.
Publications
Prior publications
ORCiD
Lu Lu, Feifei Zhang, Liam Brierley, Gail Robertson, Margo Chase-Topping, Samantha Lycett, Mark Woolhouse, Thomas Leitner, (2024) Temporal Dynamics, Discovery, and Emergence of Human-Transmissible RNA Viruses Molecular Biology and Evolution (doi: 10.1093/molbev/msad272)(issn: 1537-1719); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Franziska Hufsky, Abecasis AB, Artem Babaian, Sebastian Beck, Liam Brierley, Simon Dellicour, Christian Eggeling, Santiago F. Elena, Udo Gieraths, Anh D. Ha, William T. Harvey, Terry Jones, Kevin Lamkiewicz, Gabriel Lencioni Lovate, Dominik Lücking, Martin Machyna, Luca Nishimura, Maximilian K Nocke, Bernard Y. Renard, Shoichi Sakaguchi, Lygeri Sakellaridi, Jannes Spangenberg, Maria Tarradas-Alemany, Sandra Triebel, Yulia Aleshina, Rajitha Yasas Wijesekara, Fernando Gonzalez-Candelas, Sarah Krautwurst, Alba Pérez-Cataluña, Walter RANDAZZO, Gloria Sánchez, Manja Marz, (2023) The International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting 2023 Viruses (doi: 10.3390/v15102031); source: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Timothée Poisot, Marie-Andrée Ouellet, Nardus Mollentze, Maxwell J. Farrell, Daniel J. Becker, Liam Brierley, Gregory F. Albery, Rory J. Gibb, Stephanie N. Seifert, Colin J. Carlson, (2023) Network embedding unveils the hidden interactions in the mammalian virome Patterns (doi: 10.1016/j.patter.2023.100738)(issn: 2666-3899); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Liam Brierley, Federico Nanni, Jessica K. Polka, Gautam Dey, Máté Pálfy, Nicholas Fraser, Jonathon Alexis Coates, Ulrich Dirnagl, (2022) Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic PLOS Biology (doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001285)(issn: 1545-7885); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Nicholas Fraser, Liam Brierley, Gautam Dey, Jessica K. Polka, Máté Pálfy, Federico Nanni, Jonathon Alexis Coates, Ulrich Dirnagl, (2021) The evolving role of preprints in the dissemination of COVID-19 research and their impact on the science communication landscape PLOS Biology (doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000959)(issn: 1545-7885); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Liam Brierley, Anna Fowler, Adam S. Lauring, (2021) Predicting the animal hosts of coronaviruses from compositional biases of spike protein and whole genome sequences through machine learning PLOS Pathogens (doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009149)(issn: 1553-7374); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Liam Brierley, (2021) Lessons from the influx of preprints during the early COVID-19 pandemic The Lancet Planetary Health (doi: 10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00011-5)(issn: 2542-5196); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Soeren Metelmann, Karan Pattni, Liam Brierley, Lisa Cavalerie, Cyril Caminade, Marcus S.C. Blagrove, Joanne Turner, Kieran J. Sharkey, Matthew Baylis, (2021) Impact of climatic, demographic and disease control factors on the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in large cities worldwide One Health (doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100221)(issn: 2352-7714); source: Crossref Metadata Search
(2020) Global discovery of human-infective RNA viruses: A modelling analysis PLOS Pathogens (doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009079)(issn: 1553-7374); source: Liam Brierley
Brierley L, Pedersen AB, Woolhouse MEJ, (2019) Tissue tropism and transmission ecology predict virulence of human RNA viruses. PLoS biology (pmid: 31770368)(pmc: PMC6879112)(doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000206); source: Europe PubMed Central
Woolhouse MEJ, Brierley L, (2018) Epidemiological characteristics of human-infective RNA viruses. Scientific data (pmid: 29461515)(doi: 10.1038/sdata.2018.17); source: Europe PubMed Central
Woolhouse, M.E.J., Brierley, L., McCaffery, C., Lycett, S., (2016) Assessing the epidemic potential of RNA and DNA viruses Emerging Infectious Diseases (doi: 10.3201/eid2212.160123)(eid: 2-s2.0-84995920420); source: Scopus - Elsevier
Brierley, L., Vonhof, M.J., Olival, K.J., Daszak, P., Jones, K.E., (2016) Quantifying global drivers of zoonotic bat viruses: A process-based perspective American Naturalist (doi: 10.1086/684391)(eid: 2-s2.0-84957800028); source: Scopus - Elsevier
J Woolhouse ME, Adair K, Brierley L, (2013) RNA Viruses: A Case Study of the Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases. (pmid: 26184815)(doi: 10.1128/microbiolspec.OH-0001-2012); source: Europe PubMed Central
(2012) Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots (handle: 10568/21161); source: Liam Brierley
Michael J. Hawkings, N. Marcella Vaselli, Dimitrios Charalampopoulos, Liam Brierley, Alex J. Elliot, Iain Buchan, Daniel Hungerford, A systematic review of the prevalence of persistent gastrointestinal symptoms and incidence of new gastrointestinal illness after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (doi: 10.1101/2023.04.26.23289142); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Sarah Hayes, Joe Hilton, Joaquin Mould-Quevedo, Christl Donnelly, Matthew Baylis, Liam Brierley, Ecology and environment predict spatially stratified risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds across Europe (doi: 10.1101/2024.07.17.603912); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Lu Lu, Liam Brierley, Gail Robertson, Feifei Zhang, Samantha Lycett, Donald Smith, Margo Chase-Topping, Peter Simmonds, Mark Woolhouse, Evolutionary origins of epidemic potential among human RNA viruses (doi: 10.1101/771394); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Nicholas Fraser, Liam Brierley, Gautam Dey, Jessica K Polka, Máté Pálfy, Jonathon Alexis Coates, Preprinting a pandemic: the role of preprints in the COVID-19 pandemic (doi: 10.1101/2020.05.22.111294); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Jessica K Polka, Gautam Dey, Máté Pálfy, Federico Nanni, Liam Brierley, Nicholas Fraser, Jonathon Alexis Coates, Preprints in motion: tracking changes between posting and journal publication (doi: 10.1101/2021.02.20.432090); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Liam Brierley, The role of research preprints in the academic response to the COVID-19 epidemic Authorea (doi: 10.22541/au.158516578.89167184); source: Crossref Metadata Search
Supervision
I am open to lead or co-supervision of doctoral research students in projects relating to computational biology, biostatistics, viral ecology and evolution, and epidemiology though note I work broadly across a wide range of viruses.
Professional activities & recognition
Research fellowships
- 2024 - 2029: MRC Career Development Award
- 2019 - 2022: MRC Skills Development Fellowship
Grant committees & research advisory boards
- 2020: British Ecological Society (BES), Review College
Editorial boards
- 2024: Scientific Data
- 2022: Frontiers in Virology
Professional & learned societies
- 2016: Fellow and Statistical Ambassador, Royal Statistical Society
- 2018: Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Supplementary
- I also am a keen science communicator and have written and led interactive science outreach events across the UK since 2017 including three shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I also co-organise Bright Club Glasgow, a regular venue for academics and researchers to communicate their work through stand-up comedy.
