Summary
I joined the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in April 2022 as a Research Associate in Erik Volz's group, to work on virus evolution and genomic epidemiology. In particular, my focus is on identifying and evaluating genetic variants that influence transmissibility. I am currently assessing SARS-CoV-2 variant growth rates, determined through phylogenetic methods using the Transmission Fitness Polymorphism Scanner (designated in an R package mrc-ide/tfpscanner) developed by Erik Volz and Olivia Boyd, as a leading indicator for waves of infection. The aim is to quantitatively compare this against other leading indicators and to consider how the findings might inform surveillance strategy.
Publications
Journals
Drake K, Boyd O, Franceschi V, et al., 2024, Phylogenomic early warning signals for SARS-CoV-2 epidemic waves, Ebiomedicine, Vol:100, ISSN:2352-3964
FitzGerald V, Drake KO, Jones JR, et al., 2007, <i>In situ</i> high-energy X-ray diffraction study of a bioactive calcium silicate foam immersed in simulated body fluid, Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, Vol:14, ISSN:1600-5775, Pages:492-499
FitzGerald V, Pickup DM, Drake KO, et al., 2007, A high energy X-ray diffraction study of sol-gel derived (Ta<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>)<sub><i>x</i></sub>(SiO<sub>2</sub>)<sub>1-<i>x</i></sub> glasses (<i>x</i>=0.05, 0.11 and 0.25) -: elucidating the role of tantalum in silica, Journal of Sol-gel Science and Technology, Vol:44, ISSN:0928-0707, Pages:153-159
Drake KO, Carta D, Skipper L, et al., 2005, A multinuclear solid state NMR study of the sol-gel formation of amorphous Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>-SiO<sub>2</sub> materials, Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Vol:27, ISSN:0926-2040, Pages:28-36
Conference
Pickup DM, Sowrey FE, Skipper LJ, et al., 2005, The structure of TiO<sub>2</sub>-SiO<sub>2</sub> and CaO-SiO<sub>2</sub> sol-gel glasses from neutron diffraction and solid state NMR using isotopic enrichment of titanium, calcium and oxygen, 9th International Conference on the Structure of Non-Crystalline Materials (NCM9), SOC GLASS TECHNOLOGY, Pages:433-438, ISSN:0031-9090