On June 08 2023 by Simon Dellicour
An episode of the Z-Science broadcast has recently been dedicated to the research activities conducted at the Spatial Epidemiology Lab. Aired on June 7, 2023, this episode can be viewed in full here (in French).
On May 22 2023 by Simon Dellicour
Our new study on post-vaccination nursing home COVID-19 outbreaks has been published in Nature Aging. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination has resulted in excellent protection against fatal disease, including in older adults. However, risk factors for post-vaccination fatal COVID-19 are largely unknown. In the new study, we comprehensively analysed three large nursing home outbreaks (20–35% fatal cases among residents) by combining severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) aerosol monitoring, whole-genome phylogenetic analysis and immunovirological profiling of nasal mucosa by digital nCounter transcriptomics. Read more...
On May 15 2023 by Simon Dellicour
Our new study on the introduction and dispersal dynamics of introduction of SARS-CoV-2 variants in New York City has been published in PLoS Pathogens. Since the latter part of 2020, SARS-CoV-2 evolution has been characterised by the emergence of viral variants associated with distinct biological characteristics. While the main research focus has centred on the ability of new variants to increase in frequency and impact the effective reproductive number of the virus, less attention has been placed on their relative ability to establish transmission chains and to spread through a geographic area. Read more...
On April 11 2023 by Simon Dellicour
Powassan virus is an emerging tick-borne virus of concern for public health, but very little is known about its transmission patterns and ecology. In our recent study performed in collaboration with the Grubaugh Lab just published in PNAS, we expanded the genomic dataset by sequencing 279 Powassan viruses isolated from Ixodes scapularis ticks from the northeastern United States. Our phylogeographic reconstructions revealed that Powassan virus lineage II was likely introduced or emerged from a relict population in the Northeast between 1940-1975. Read more...
On January 23 2023 by Simon Dellicour
The high economic impact and zoonotic potential of avian influenza call for detailed investigations of dispersal dynamics of epidemics. We integrated phylogeographic and epidemiologic analyses to investigate the dynamics of an H3N1 low pathogenic avian influenza epidemic that occurred in Belgium during 2019. Virus genomes from 104 clinical samples originating from 85% of affected farms were sequenced. A spatially-explicit phylogeographic analysis confirmed a dominating northeast to southwest dispersal direction and a long-distance dispersal event linked to direct live animal transportation between farms. Read more...
On October 14 2022 by Simon Dellicour
The Spatial Epidemiology Lab is delighted to welcome three new researchers in its interdisciplinary team: Fabiana Gámbaro whose post-doctoral project will be dedicated to application and methodological developments of phylodynamic approaches, Guillaume Ghisbain whose post-doctoral project will focus on investigating the dynamics and drivers of insect invasions at the European scale, as well as Jonathan Thibaut who just started a PhD project at the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology of the KU Leuven and co-supervised at the SpELL. Read more...
On October 13 2022 by Jean-Claude Grégoire
Monitoring is an important component of pest management, to prevent or mitigate outbreaks of native pests, and to check for quarantine organisms. Surveys often rely on trapping, especially when the target species respond to semiochemicals. Many traps are available for this purpose, but they are bulky in most cases, which raises transportation and deployment issues, and they are expensive, which limits the size and accuracy of any network. To overpass these difficulties, en-tomologists have used recycled material, such as modified plastic bottles, producing cheap and reliable traps but at the cost of recurrent handywork, not necessarily possible for all end-users (e. Read more...
On September 23 2022 by Simon Dellicour
Lassa fever is a severe viral hemorrhagic fever caused by a zoonotic virus that repeatedly spills over to humans from its rodent reservoirs. It is currently not known how climate and land use changes could affect the endemic area of this virus, currently limited to parts of West Africa. By exploring the environmental data associated with virus occurrence using ecological niche modelling, we show how temperature, precipitation and the presence of pastures determine ecological suitability for virus circulation. Read more...
On July 07 2022 by Simon Dellicour
Phylogeographic inference of the dispersal history of viral lineages offers key opportunities to tackle epidemiological questions about the spread of fast-evolving pathogens across human, animal, and plant populations. In continuous space, i.e. when locations are specified by longitude and latitude, these reconstructions are however often limited by the availability or accessibility of precise sampling locations required for such spatially-explicit analyses. In our new study published in Virus Evolution, we review the different approaches that can be considered when genomic sequences are associated with a geographic area of sampling instead of precise coordinates. Read more...
On December 20 2021 by Simon Dellicour
We are hiring! A 2-year post-doc position to work on viral landscape phylogeography. Description A 2-year post-doc position is open at the Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL) of the University of Brussels (ULB) to work on landscape phylogeographic approaches. The position is available immediately and should start no later than June 1, 2022. The researcher will work on a research project funded by an Incentive Grant for Scientific Research awarded by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium). Read more...