Financed by the Clarendon Fund and Lincoln-Kingsgate Graduate Scholarship schemes. My research focuses on understanding the transmission dynamics of enzootic and epidemic arthropod-borne-zoonotic viruses in Latin America, with the aim of deciphering the factors that lead to their emergence and adaptation in new environments. To solve these questions, I integrate clinical, virological, molecular, epidemiological, statistical and mathematical approaches along with the understanding of the impact of the ecological and evolutionary process in viral adaptation. For these purposes, I use the alphavirus equine encephalitis as a model for viral emergence.
My final goal is to translate this research into public health policy recommendations for prevention and control. I'm also interested in real-time outbreak response, virus discovery and viral taxonomy.
