News

Delighted to welcome new researchers in our interdisciplinary team at the Spatial Epidemiology Lab

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...

Introducing the Fan-trap, an inexpensive, light and scalable insect trap

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...

Our new study about the evolution of the Lassa virus endemic area and population at risk

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...

New review: accommodating sampling location uncertainty in continuous phylogeography

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...

We are hiring! A 2-year post-doc position to work on viral landscape phylogeography at the SpELL

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...

New research on the distribution of antimicrobial resistance from Asia's aquaculture and fisheries industry

On September 15 2021 by Dan Schar
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise globally, threatening animal and human health. The aquaculture and fisheries industry is experiencing rapid growth–with aquatic animals now the fastest growing food animal sector globally. Yet, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in aquatic animals destined for human consumption is seldom documented, limiting the application of targeted interventions. Addressing this gap, we reviewed current evidence on AMR in farmed and wild-caught aquatic food animals over two decades in Asia, the world’s most productive aquaculture and fisheries region. Read more...

New publication in Science: spatio-temporal invasion dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant in UK

On July 22 2021 by Simon Dellicour
Understanding the causes and consequences of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern is crucial to pandemic control yet difficult to achieve, as they arise in the context of variable human behaviour and immunity. We investigate the spatial invasion dynamics of lineage B.1.1.7 by jointly analysing UK human mobility, virus genomes, and community-based PCR data. We identify a multi-stage spatial invasion process in which early B.1.1.7 growth rates were associated with mobility and asymmetric lineage export from a dominant source location, enhancing the effects of B. Read more...

New publication in Nature: untangling introductions and persistence in COVID-19 resurgence in Europe

On June 30 2021 by Simon Dellicour
Following the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections in spring 2020, Europe experienced a resurgence of the virus starting late summer. Although it appears clear that travel had a significant impact on the circulation of the virus, it remains challenging to assess how it may have restructured and reignited the epidemic in the different European countries. In our new study published in Nature, we built a phylogeographic model to assess how newly introduced viral lineages, as opposed to persisting ones, contributed to the resurgence of COVID-19 in Europe. Read more...

Investigating the drivers of the spatio-temporal heterogeneity in COVID-19 hospital incidence

On June 15 2021 by Simon Dellicour
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting nations globally, but with an impact exhibiting significant spatial and temporal variation at the sub-national level. Identifying and disentangling the drivers of resulting hospitalisation incidence at the local scale is key to predict, mitigate and manage epidemic surges, but also to develop targeted measures. However, this type of analysis is often not possible because of the lack of spatially-explicit health data and spatial uncertainties associated with infection. Read more...

Implementation of the federal genomic surveillance platform for SARS-CoV-2

On June 01 2021 by Simon Dellicour & Guy Baele
The continuing accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 infections across the world continues to pose a significant threat to public health, with the different variants of concern (VOCs) being the primary focus, especially those that originated in South Africa (lineage B.1.351) and Brazil (lineage P.1) due to their potential of escaping vaccine-induced immunity, a pressing concern now that vaccination campaigns are being deployed around the world. Additionally, many countries are trying to avoid or control a next wave of infections by maintaining public health measures (including social distancing and partial or complete lockdowns) to avoid flooding hospitals with patients and to keep medical care facilities from collapsing. Read more...