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Samuel Alizon (CNRS & College de France), Virus dynamics within and between hosts: the cases of HPV and SARS-CoV-2
23 November 2022 | 11 h 00 min - 12 h 00 min
Samuel Alizon is a CNRS Researcher at the College de France in Paris, where he is the Head of the Ecology & Evolution of Health (EEH) team at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology (CIRB). Samuel is a theoretical evolutionary ecologist specialized in the study of infectious diseases, with a particular interest in human parasites such as HIV, HCV, malaria, ebola, HPV, and SARS-Cov-2.
Abstract:
Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are among the most oncogenic infectious agents known to humans. They are responsible for almost all cervical cancers and a significant fraction of other cancers (e.g. anal or oropharyngeal). Most genital HPV infections are “acute”, i.e. not persistent. Yet, our knowledge of the early stages of infection remains limited. The PAPCLEAR clinical study promoted by the CHU of Montpellier followed 149 young women for a median duration of 290 days. It was designed to study the course of HPV infections and, more generally, the vaginal ecosystem. We followed variations in HPV viral loads, immune cells counts, and cytokines in the cervical region, along with the composition of the vaginal microbiota and circulating anti-HPV antibodies. We then combine these longitudinal data with Bayesian hierarchical statistical models. I will present our current understanding of HPV infection kinetics and also, if time permits, some of the research we have been conducting on modelling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 using mathematical modelling and phylodynamics.
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