Project on modelling leptospirosis at the animal-human interface. Successful applicant will have full tuition + stipend + research funds (subject to residency requirements).
Deadline: 14th January 2018

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease that generates high incidence in the Pacific. However, understanding its dynamics is challenging because there are multiple animal reservoirs, environmental and sociodemographic drivers of transmission, several bacterial strains, and seasonal variation in transmission. This project will combine mathematical models of zoonotic transmission with multiple datasets to examine the relative importance of different transmission routes and implications for public health. This includes serological data from human and animal populations in Fiji, as well as disease surveillance, climate and environmental data. The work builds on existing collaborations with Australian National University, and there will be potential to extend analysis to other settings.

This project will be co-supervised by Dr Rachel Lowe, whose research focuses on understanding how environmental and socio-economic factors interact to determine the risk of disease transmission.

Here are some papers to give you more of an idea about what the project involves:

• Lau et al. Human Leptospirosis Infection in Fiji: An Eco-epidemiological Approach to Identifying Risk Factors and Environmental Drivers for Transmission. PLOS NTD 2016

• Lowe et al. Relative importance of climatic, geographic and socio-economic determinants of malaria in Malawi. Malaria Journal 2013

• Kucharski et al. Characterizing the transmission potential of zoonotic infections from minor outbreaks. PLOS Comput Biol 2015

This project is part of the LSHTM MRC-LID scheme. To apply, you should first get in touch with your potential supervisor (i.e. me or Rachel). We can discuss options then you’ll need to put together a short application for funding, which goes to the MRC-LID committee at LSHTM who make the final decision.

More details here: http://mrc-lid.lshtm.ac.uk/