Speaker
Roy Chadi
Description
Thanks to their rapid evolution, influenza A viruses are able to
seasonally infect a significant fraction of the human population. This
evolution is driven by strong immune selection in partially immunized
hosts, coupled with an error-prone RNA polymerase. The hemagglutinin
(HA), a key viral surface protein, is the major target of host antibodies
and thus the site of most variation. How do functional constraints of the
HA, such as protein stability, shape evolutionary and transmission
dynamics? In this work, we formulate a cross-scale mathematical
model that considers molecular properties of the HA, within-host
evolutionary dynamics, and between-host transmission. We
characterize the emerging properties of flu, and glean important insight
into its long-term evolution.
Primary author
Roy Chadi
