Abstract

Much of the burden of infectious disease today is caused by antigenically variable pathogens. These pathogens share a variety of characteristics that combine to profoundly challenge biological and medical research. They evolve to escape immunity induced by prior infection or vaccination. They become resistant to existing drugs. They can infect individuals multiple times during their lifetimes.

Influenza viruses are classic examples of antigenically variable pathogens and make an excellent model system for studying pathogen evolution owing to the wealth of available data. Dr Russell studies how epidemiology shapes virus evolution primarily focusing the global dynamics of human seasonal influenza viruses. He is actively involved in World Health Organization (WHO) influenza vaccine strain selection process and has recently been working with WHO and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on analyses of the outbreak of swine origin A (H1N1) viruses.