Dr Maxwell Farrell
- Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence (Infectious Disease Ecology)
email:
Maxwell.Farrell@glasgow.ac.uk
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Henry Wellcome Building, Room 413
Research interests
My research focuses on the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions, and developing knowledge and tools support the surveillance of parasites that infect multiple species. I am interested identifying the forces that shape both host and parasite biodiversity, how variation in host-specificity influences the ecology of infectious diseases, and generating methods to predict and track undocumented host-parasite interactions. I tackle these questions using data-driven approaches from macroecology, computational statistics, text mining, and biodiversity genomics.
Personal Webpage | Google Scholar
Research groups
Publications
2024
Farrell, M. J. , Le Guillarme, N., Brierley, L. , Hunter, B., Scheepers, D., Willoughby, A., Yates, A. and Mideo, N. (2024) The changing landscape of text mining: a review of approaches for ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2027), 20240423. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0423) (PMID:39082244)
Scheepens, D., Millard, J., Farrell, M. and Newbold, T. (2024) Large language models help facilitate the automated synthesis of information on potential pest controllers. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 15(7), pp. 1261-1273. (doi: 10.1111/2041-210x.14341)
Pfenning-Butterworth, A., Buckley, L. B., Drake, J. M., Farner, J. E., Farrell, M. J. , Gehman, A.-L. M., Mordecai, E. A., Stephens, P. R., Gittleman, J. L. and Davies, T. J. (2024) Interconnecting global threats: climate change, biodiversity loss, and infectious diseases. Lancet Planetary Health, 8(4), e270-e283. (doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00021-4) (PMID:38580428)
2022
Farrell, M. J. , Govender, D., Hajibabaei, M., van der Bank, M. and Davies, T. J. (2022) Environmental DNA as a management tool for tracking artificial waterhole use in savanna ecosystems. Biological Conservation, 274, 109712. (doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109712)
Farrell, M. J. , Brierley, L., Willoughby, A., Yates, A. and Mideo, N. (2022) Past and future uses of text mining in ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 289(1975), 20212721. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2721) (PMID:35582795) (PMCID:PMC9114983)
Farrell, M. J. , Elmasri, M., Stephens, D. A. and Davies, T. J. (2022) Predicting missing links in global host–parasite networks. Journal of Animal Ecology, 91(4), pp. 715-726. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13666) (PMID:35066873)
Carlson, C. J. et al. (2022) The Global Virome in One Network (VIRION): an Atlas of Vertebrate-Virus Associations. mBio, 13(2), e02985-21. (doi: 10.1128/mbio.02985-21) (PMID:35229639) (PMCID:PMC8941870)
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
Albery, G. F. et al. (2021) The science of the host–virus network. Nature Microbiology, 6, pp. 1483-1492. (doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00999-5) (PMID:34819645)
Farrell, M. J. , Park, A. W., Cressler, C. E., Dallas, T., Huang, S., Mideo, N., Morales-Castilla, I., Davies, T. J. and Stephens, P. (2021) The ghost of hosts past: impacts of host extinction on parasite specificity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200351. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0351) (PMID:34538147) (PMCID:PMC8450631)
Huang, S., Farrell, M. and Stephens, P. R. (2021) Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200350. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0350) (PMID:34538145) (PMCID:PMC8450632)
Morales-Castilla, I., Pappalardo, P., Farrell, M. J. , Aguirre, A. A., Huang, S., Gehman, A.-L. M., Dallas, T., Gravel, D. and Davies, T. J. (2021) Forecasting parasite sharing under climate change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200360. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0360) (PMID:34538143) (PMCID:PMC8450630)
Gibb, R. et al. (2021) Data proliferation, reconciliation, and synthesis in viral ecology. BioScience, 71(11), pp. 1148-1156. (doi: 10.1093/biosci/biab080)
Carlson, C. J. et al. (2021) The future of zoonotic risk prediction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200358. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0358) (PMID:34538140)
Schmidt, J. P., Davies, T. J. and Farrell, M. J. (2021) Opposing macroevolutionary and trait-mediated patterns of threat and naturalisation in flowering plants. Ecology Letters, 24(6), pp. 1237-1250. (doi: 10.1111/ele.13740) (PMID:33786974)
2020
LoScerbo, D., Farrell, M. J. , Arrowsmith, J., Mlynarek, J. and Lessard, J.-P. (2020) Phylogenetically conserved host traits and local abiotic conditions jointly drive the geography of parasite intensity. Functional Ecology, 34(12), pp. 2477-2487. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.13698)
Elmasri, M., Farrell, M. J. , Davies, T. J. and Stephens, D. A. (2020) A hierarchical bayesian model for predicting ecological interactions using scaled evolutionary relationships. Annals of Applied Statistics, 14(1), pp. 221-240. (doi: 10.1214/19-AOAS1296)
2019
Schmidt, J.P., Maher, S., Drake, J.M., Huang, T., Farrell, M. J. and Han, B.A. (2019) Ecological indicators of mammal exposure to Ebolavirus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374(1782), 20180337. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0337) (PMID:31401967) (PMCID:PMC6711296)
Dallas, T., Gehman, A.-L.M., Aguirre, A.A., Budischak, S.A., Drake, J.M., Farrell, M. J. , Ghai, R., Huang, S. and Morales-Castilla, I. (2019) Contrasting latitudinal gradients of body size in helminth parasites and their hosts. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 28(6), pp. 804-813. (doi: 10.1111/geb.12894)
Farrell, M. J. and Davies, T. J. (2019) Disease mortality in domesticated animals is predicted by host evolutionary relationships. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(16), pp. 7911-7915. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1817323116) (PMID:30926660) (PMCID:PMC6475420)
Farrell, M. J. , Govender, D., Hajibabaei, M., Van Der Bank, M. and Davies, T.J. (2019) Bacterial diversity in the waterholes of the Kruger National Park: An eDNA metabarcoding approach. Genome, 62(3), pp. 229-242. (doi: 10.1139/gen-2018-0064) (PMID:30495980)
2018
Park, A.W. et al. (2018) Characterizing the phylogenetic specialism-generalism spectrum of mammal parasites. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1874), 20172613. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2613) (PMID:29514973) (PMCID:PMC5879627)
Articles
Farrell, M. J. , Le Guillarme, N., Brierley, L. , Hunter, B., Scheepers, D., Willoughby, A., Yates, A. and Mideo, N. (2024) The changing landscape of text mining: a review of approaches for ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2027), 20240423. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0423) (PMID:39082244)
Scheepens, D., Millard, J., Farrell, M. and Newbold, T. (2024) Large language models help facilitate the automated synthesis of information on potential pest controllers. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 15(7), pp. 1261-1273. (doi: 10.1111/2041-210x.14341)
Pfenning-Butterworth, A., Buckley, L. B., Drake, J. M., Farner, J. E., Farrell, M. J. , Gehman, A.-L. M., Mordecai, E. A., Stephens, P. R., Gittleman, J. L. and Davies, T. J. (2024) Interconnecting global threats: climate change, biodiversity loss, and infectious diseases. Lancet Planetary Health, 8(4), e270-e283. (doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00021-4) (PMID:38580428)
Farrell, M. J. , Govender, D., Hajibabaei, M., van der Bank, M. and Davies, T. J. (2022) Environmental DNA as a management tool for tracking artificial waterhole use in savanna ecosystems. Biological Conservation, 274, 109712. (doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109712)
Farrell, M. J. , Brierley, L., Willoughby, A., Yates, A. and Mideo, N. (2022) Past and future uses of text mining in ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 289(1975), 20212721. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2721) (PMID:35582795) (PMCID:PMC9114983)
Farrell, M. J. , Elmasri, M., Stephens, D. A. and Davies, T. J. (2022) Predicting missing links in global host–parasite networks. Journal of Animal Ecology, 91(4), pp. 715-726. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13666) (PMID:35066873)
Carlson, C. J. et al. (2022) The Global Virome in One Network (VIRION): an Atlas of Vertebrate-Virus Associations. mBio, 13(2), e02985-21. (doi: 10.1128/mbio.02985-21) (PMID:35229639) (PMCID:PMC8941870)
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)
Albery, G. F. et al. (2021) The science of the host–virus network. Nature Microbiology, 6, pp. 1483-1492. (doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00999-5) (PMID:34819645)
Farrell, M. J. , Park, A. W., Cressler, C. E., Dallas, T., Huang, S., Mideo, N., Morales-Castilla, I., Davies, T. J. and Stephens, P. (2021) The ghost of hosts past: impacts of host extinction on parasite specificity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200351. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0351) (PMID:34538147) (PMCID:PMC8450631)
Huang, S., Farrell, M. and Stephens, P. R. (2021) Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200350. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0350) (PMID:34538145) (PMCID:PMC8450632)
Morales-Castilla, I., Pappalardo, P., Farrell, M. J. , Aguirre, A. A., Huang, S., Gehman, A.-L. M., Dallas, T., Gravel, D. and Davies, T. J. (2021) Forecasting parasite sharing under climate change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200360. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0360) (PMID:34538143) (PMCID:PMC8450630)
Gibb, R. et al. (2021) Data proliferation, reconciliation, and synthesis in viral ecology. BioScience, 71(11), pp. 1148-1156. (doi: 10.1093/biosci/biab080)
Carlson, C. J. et al. (2021) The future of zoonotic risk prediction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1837), 20200358. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0358) (PMID:34538140)
Schmidt, J. P., Davies, T. J. and Farrell, M. J. (2021) Opposing macroevolutionary and trait-mediated patterns of threat and naturalisation in flowering plants. Ecology Letters, 24(6), pp. 1237-1250. (doi: 10.1111/ele.13740) (PMID:33786974)
LoScerbo, D., Farrell, M. J. , Arrowsmith, J., Mlynarek, J. and Lessard, J.-P. (2020) Phylogenetically conserved host traits and local abiotic conditions jointly drive the geography of parasite intensity. Functional Ecology, 34(12), pp. 2477-2487. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.13698)
Elmasri, M., Farrell, M. J. , Davies, T. J. and Stephens, D. A. (2020) A hierarchical bayesian model for predicting ecological interactions using scaled evolutionary relationships. Annals of Applied Statistics, 14(1), pp. 221-240. (doi: 10.1214/19-AOAS1296)
Schmidt, J.P., Maher, S., Drake, J.M., Huang, T., Farrell, M. J. and Han, B.A. (2019) Ecological indicators of mammal exposure to Ebolavirus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374(1782), 20180337. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0337) (PMID:31401967) (PMCID:PMC6711296)
Dallas, T., Gehman, A.-L.M., Aguirre, A.A., Budischak, S.A., Drake, J.M., Farrell, M. J. , Ghai, R., Huang, S. and Morales-Castilla, I. (2019) Contrasting latitudinal gradients of body size in helminth parasites and their hosts. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 28(6), pp. 804-813. (doi: 10.1111/geb.12894)
Farrell, M. J. and Davies, T. J. (2019) Disease mortality in domesticated animals is predicted by host evolutionary relationships. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(16), pp. 7911-7915. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1817323116) (PMID:30926660) (PMCID:PMC6475420)
Farrell, M. J. , Govender, D., Hajibabaei, M., Van Der Bank, M. and Davies, T.J. (2019) Bacterial diversity in the waterholes of the Kruger National Park: An eDNA metabarcoding approach. Genome, 62(3), pp. 229-242. (doi: 10.1139/gen-2018-0064) (PMID:30495980)
Park, A.W. et al. (2018) Characterizing the phylogenetic specialism-generalism spectrum of mammal parasites. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1874), 20172613. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2613) (PMID:29514973) (PMCID:PMC5879627)