London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The LSHTM Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) is pleased to host Dr Jessica Metcalf from Princeton University, to deliver this year’s CMMID Annual Lecture.

Immuno-epidemiological surveillance, and notably serology, has been a powerful tool in epidemiology and public health. Arguably, we are on the cusp of a revolution in immuno-epidemiological surveillance’s capacity to provide a lens onto both the history and future epidemiological and evolutionary trajectory of epidemics.  

During this lecture, Dr Jessica Metcalf will approach this by first reviewing the use of sero-epidemiology against measles from early important foundations to recent work in Madagascar, revealing the predictive power of serology to forecast epidemics even on the basis of unpromising and non-specifically collected data. Secondly, she will discuss the use of immuno-epidemiological data alongside viral discovery in considering pathogen emergence and evolution of novel variants. Thirdly, she will introduce directions emerging from the range of heterogeneities underlying immunity, including sex differences, boosting and waning. Together, these threads point to the vast potential of sample collection and analysis leveraging advances including multiplex serology via a Global Immunological Observatory.   

Speaker

Dr Jessica Metcalf is a demographer based at Princeton University who works on issues ranging from the design of vaccination policies to the evolution of sex differences in immunity using mathematical and statistical modelling.