Social Network Structure and the Determinants of Pathogen Genetic Diversity

Principal Investigator

Joseph Eisenberg

Co-Investigators

Betsy Foxman, Carl Marrs, Lixin Zhang, Gabriel Trueba, William Cevallos Trujillo, James Trostle, Karen Levy, Alan Hubbard

Additional Personnel

Beth Percha

Funding Sources

National Science Foundation

About this Project

A model was developed describing pathogen evolution within a social network that allows for independent variation of several important network parameters: the average degree, number and size of communities, and modularity. The model also incorporates multiple pathogen strains, co-infection, and cross-immunity. By running the model for a variety of pathogen types with different transmission rates, infectious periods, and durations of immunity, we explore which pathogen and network features most strongly influence genetic diversity within the pathogen pool.