Research Summary
Dr. Hill and her team develop mathematical models and computational tools to help understand, predict, and treat infectious diseases, with a particular focus on human viral infections including HIV/AIDS. They also work on drug resistant infections, bed bug infestations, anti-viral immune responses, and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Their research spans infection dynamics both within single individual and across populations. The lab also works on general evolutionary theory of infectious diseases. In the past, Dr. Hill has developed mathematical models for a broad range of topics in biology and medicine, such as pattern formation in early multicellular lifeforms, iron regulation in the body, the interpersonal spread of health-related behaviors, and more.
The work of Dr. Hill’s team is done in close collaboration with experimental biologists and clinicians around the world. Their research incorporates a range of data sources, including time-series characterization of infections within infected individuals and across populations, in vitro microbial growth, pathogen genetic data, biomarkers of immunity, in vivo lineage tracing, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and human behavior. This work is guided by the belief that quantitative models are a powerful tool to test hypotheses about the biological mechanisms responsible for observed trends in data, and to integrate existing biological data in a formal way to predict the outcomes of experiments that have not yet, or could never, be performed.
Lab
Lab Website: Alison Hill Lab
Selected Publications
Rader B*, Scarpino SV*, Nande A, Hill AL, Adlam B, Reiner RC, Pigott DM, Gutierrez B, Zarebski A, Shrestha M, Brownstein JS, Castro MC, Dye C, Tian Y, Pybus OG, Kraemer MUG (2020). “Crowding and the epidemic intensity of COVID-19 transmission”. Nature Medicine
Krieger MS, Denison CE*, Anderson TL*, Nowak MA, Hill AL (2020). “Population structure across scales facilitates coexistence and spatial heterogeneity of antibiotic-resistant infections”. PLOS Computational Biology. 16(7):e1008010. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008010
Leventhal GE*, Hill AL*, Nowak MA, Bonhoeffer S (2015). “Evolution and emergence of infectious diseases in theoretical and real world networks”. Nature Communications, 6 (6101); doi:10.1038/ncomms7101
Hill AL*, Rosenbloom DIS*, Fu F, Nowak MA, Siliciano RF (2014). “Predicting the outcomes of treatment to eradicate the latent reservoir for HIV-1”. PNAS, 111 (37), 13475-13480
Rosenbloom DIS*, Hill AL*, Rabi SA*, Siliciano RF, Nowak MA (2012). “Antiretroviral dynamics determines HIV evolution and predicts therapy outcome”. Nature Medicine (cover article). 18(9):1378–1385
Patient Ratings & Comments
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