Title: Coupled Dynamics: How Genes Shape Epidemics (and Epidemics Shape Genes) 

Abstract: Host genetic structure can significantly alter disease transmission dynamics and long-term disease outcomes. Past work by Beck, Keener, Hoppensteadt, Feng, and others has shown that when pathogen transmission interacts with evolving host traits—such as susceptibility, recovery, or disease-induced mortality—the resulting coupled system can exhibit novel dynamics. These models demonstrated that genetic composition within a host population can shift during an epidemic, and conversely, infection pressures can reshuffle genetic frequencies, producing true feedback between genes and epidemics.

In this talk, I will discuss a specific example of this phenomenon, focusing on the interaction between Plasmodium vivax and the Duffy antigen, a host genetic trait that confers partial protection against infection.