PhD Studentship: How do species differences in susceptibility influence virus transmission? NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship for September 2025 Entry Ref 5401

About the Partnership

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP).  The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners:  British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,  the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.  The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/ 

Project details

For information relating to the research project please contact the lead Supervisor via b.longdon2@exeter.ac.uk

Project Aims and Methods

Virus host shifts – where a virus jumps from one host species to another – are a major source of emerging infectious diseases (e.g. HIV, Ebola, Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, Mpox). Despite the importance of virus host shifts, there is much to learn about why species differ in their susceptibility to novel viruses, and how a virus behaves when it jumps into a new host species.  
 
Viruses may spill over into a novel host, but if they fail to develop sustained transmission, they will not persist. Highly susceptible hosts may not always have high levels of transmission and may act as dead-end hosts or result in stuttering chains of transmission. The project will use a tractable multi-host insect-virus system to help understand pathogen emergence. The student will gain skills in: comparative biology using up to 50 species of Drosophila, AI based tools to examine social networks, and in experimentally examining virus epidemics in both lab and semi-natural field experiments. The major aims of the project are: 
 
• Determine why some species transmit viruses more than others and why others are dead-end hosts.  
• Test the relative importance of different factors in determining transmission in novel host populations. 

Training

The DTP offers funding to undertake specialist training relating to the student’s specialist area of research. 

Background reading and references

Relevant papers 
 
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004728 
https://idtracker.ai/latest/ 
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat4793 

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