Mother Nature is trying to kill me!

Many major infectious diseases of humans may be relatively young in evolutionary terms, causing epidemics only when humans first started to farm and form larger settlements around 12,000 years ago. Where did these diseases come from? I will discuss how diseases may have spilled over from wildlife and livestock, and how such 'zoonoses' continue to present a public health risk. Many insights can be gained from exploring samples obtained from long ago, including into the early spread of the Black Death and leprosy.

Our intestines are home to many microorganisms that are intimately involved in our state of health. For example, it has long been clear that bacteria help in food digestion. Recently, many more complex interactions with gut cells and the immune system have been uncovered. Similarly, viruses may not be the nasty parasites we often perceive them to be. I shall discuss the interplay between intestinal microorganisms and our own cells and how this may be both beneficial and harmful.

The 1918 global flu pandemic wiped out around 50 million people. In the last 300 years there have been around three flu pandemics every century. We must constantly be on alert for the next one. Global efforts to understand how pandemics are caused, will help us mitigate and even prevent future pandemics. I will discuss my work on how pathogens evolve, to what extent this evolution is predictable, and how it may help to determine public and animal health measures against such ever-changing pathogens.