Projects

Current Projects

Data4Action

A longitudinal cohort study, comprising of two geographically related cohorts, that aims to examine the effect of Penn State University students on the SARS-CoV-2 incidence in the surrounding community. We have recently published a the interim serological results in Nature Scientific Reports, which can be found here. The second part of the project focuses on relating the differential exposures observed in the student cohort to latent risk profiles, examining the potential impact of interventions to reduce infections.

MSF Epicentre - UrgEpi

An ongoing collaboration with Médecin Sans Frontières’ (MSF) Epicentre unit to analyze measles seroprevalence in the ex-Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The intial project examined the role of new laboratory testing facilities on the speed of diagnosis and outbreak response decisions. The second project examines the impact of Supplemental Immunization Activities in the ex-Katanga region; principally, characterizing the spatial and age-specific seronegativity, and examining the relationship between optical density (OD) distributions and seropositivity thresholds using finite mixture models.

Past Projects

Waning Measles Immunity

A prospective cross-sectional serology study of Canadian newborns and mothers assessing the rate of waning measles, varicella, and mumps antibodies in infants, including subgroup analysis by vaccination status. A retrospective analysis of waning measles antibody titers (PRNT) in stored sera from a separate cohort of Canadian newborns was published as part of the study, and can be found here