Phone: + 49 4522 763-536
Email:
uecker@nullevolbio.mpg.de
Twitter: @HildegardUecker
My research focuses on adaptation in populations that are severely challenged either by environmental change (natural populations) or by exposure to drug treatment (pathogen populations). I hope that insights from my research can contribute to improving conservation efforts and assist in decelerating the emergence of drug resistance. As a mathematician, I am mainly interested in stochastic modeling (in particular in the application of branching process theory to problems in biology).
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Email: berrios@nullevolbio.mpg.de
Topic: Models for the evolution of antibiotic resistance
I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, where I graduated from the University of Chile with a Master degree in nonlinear physics. During my PhD in statistical physics at The University of Manchester (under the supervision of Dr Tobias Galla), I started to focus on the stochastic modelling of evolutionary biological processes, with a special emphasis on antibiotic resistance evolution and fluctuating environments. My research aims at developing stochastic mathematical models that give a better insight into the combined effects of bottlenecks and relevant biological factors, such as competition or antibiotic selection, on the emergence of resistance. I also seek to understand the role of bottlenecks on pathogen populations under extreme environmental conditions. I hope my research will contribute to developing strategies that mitigate the emergence of resistance and to understanding the adaptation of pathogens to new hosts.
Phone: + 49 4522 763-541
Email:
dewan@nullevolbio.mpg.de
Topic: Multicopy plasmids and heterozygosity
I work on models of the evolution of multiple drug resistance on plasmids. Multiple drug resistance is an increasingly important problem in clinical settings, as bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics are difficult to treat. Bacterial plasmids exist in multiple copies in the cell, providing increased opportunity for the development of multiple drug resistance, and they are involved in processes like conjugation and fusion. I apply branching process models of evolutionary rescue to model the contribution of these kinds of processes to resistance evolution.
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Phone: + 49 4522 763-576
Email:
nyhoegen@nullevolbio.mpg.de
Topic: Models for the within-host evolution of antibiotic resistance during treatment
My work focuses on the optimisation of antibiotic treatment strategies in order to prevent the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance. Using mathematical models, I aim to understand the dynamics of a bacterial population that undergoes a specific treatment within a host. In particular, I consider different multi-drug treatment strategies, such as the sequential or combined administration of antibiotics. I use pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modelling to describe the within-host dynamics, and I apply branching process theory to analyse the stochastic process of resistance evolution. I am generally fascinated by the insights we can gain from mathematical models to inform and support laboratory experiments and clinical studies.
then: Postdoc in the group of Tal Dagan at the University of Kiel
Topic: The influence of the plasmid copy number on bacterial adaptation
then: Researcher at Nalyze
Topic: Plasmid-mediated horizontal gene transfer of resistance genes within and between bacterial species
then: PhD student in the group of Matt Osmond at the University of Toronto
Topic: Evolutionary rescue: The influence of mate finding, selfing, and hybridization