evolutionary dynamics
Bedford To Deliver 2021 Stetten Lecture, Oct. 20
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has remarkable potential for adaptive evolution. The virus’s evolutionary dynamics will be the focus of the 2021 DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture on Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. ET. Dr. Trevor Bedford will share his research on the topic via NIH VideoCast. The talk is an NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series event sponsored by NIGMS.
Bedford’s lecture will focus on the emergence of virus variants of interest and concern, which may spread more easily, cause more severe disease or have other negative impacts. He will characterize patterns of mutations in these variants and chart their spread. He also will provide a larger perspective on genomic surveillance, projected virus circulation patterns and strategies for ongoing pandemic management.
Bedford is an associate professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in its vaccine and infectious disease, public health sciences and human biology divisions. He is also an affiliate associate professor of epidemiology and genomic sciences at the University of Washington. He specializes in tracking the evolutionary changes of RNA viruses using computational methods. His work helps researchers develop successful strategies for monitoring and controlling infectious diseases.
Bedford codeveloped an open-source platform called Nextstrain that provides continually updated virus genomic data alongside powerful analytic and visualization tools.
The annual Stetten lecture series was established in 1982 in honor of NIGMS’s third director. The event is open to all. People who require sign language interpretation or other reasonable accommodation to participate should email WALSoffice@od.nih.gov 5 days before the lecture.