MIG Webinar - Sebastian Duchene (Full video available)
MIG COVID-19 mini-series Part III
Recorded via Zoom on Friday 8th May, 2020
Click here to view the video
Dr Sebastian Duchene
Doherty Institute, The University of Melbourne
Bridging the epidemiology and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 using near real-time phylodynamics
Abstract
The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic coincides with dramatic improvements in molecular sequencing technologies. A large amount of genome data for the virus has been generated extremely rapidly, with over 10,000 genomes available through the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) as of late April 2020. The rapid generation of these data is an unprecedented opportunity to track the evolution of the virus in near real-time. In this talk, I will present some of the key insights that have been possible from these data, including questions about the origin of the virus and its evolutionary rate and timescale. I will then focus on nowcasting epidemic spread using by exploiting dense genomic sampling from some geographic regions. To this end, I will show a suite of phylodynamic methods tailored at uncovering recent epidemiological processes, which can inform about the efficiency of containment measures. Finally, I will present a range of Bayesian hypothesis testing approaches to uncover genetic and epidemiological clusters to aid in contact tracing efforts.