Research

Alongside collaborators from Verena Project, I am investigating global differences in pathogen presence and zoonotic spillover potential. I aim to understand why zoonoses associated spillover events are seemingly more common in Africa, Asia, and Australia compared to South and Central America.

Our team samples Neotropical bats in the Chocó biogeographic region of northwest Ecuador. We work with collaborators at the Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales (FCAT) to sample bats across an anthropogenically influenced gradient. We take saliva, blood, feces, wing biopsies, and parasites from the bats we sample in order to screen for pathogens.

I am sampling local Ecuadorian livestock to screen for potential pathogens circulating in their populations. Specifically, I take samples from cows in the communities surrounding FCAT to screen for past infections and compare viral families to those isolated from bat samples in order to investigate possible transmission links between pathogens bats and livestock. 

I have previously worked with Dr. Chris Richardson (Boston University) on a project investigating how white nose syndrome impacts maternity colonies of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). We examined how pregnant bats partitioned their energy expenditure most effectively after emerging from torpor and fighting infection from white nose. 

Publications coming soon! 

I have also worked on the Bat One Health project with Dr. Alison Peel of Griffith University, assisting in sampling flying foxes around Brisbane, Australia. I assisted in catching and sampling black and grey-headed flying foxes, as well as under-roosting at local colonies.

I work closely with the FCAT research station in northwestern Ecuador, and believe strongly in community engaged research. We could not do any of the field work we do without the support and expertise of our Ecuadorian collaborating researchers. 

Learn more about FCAT here!

I am currently collaborating with the Verena Consortium to use previously aggregated databases to investigate questions of global bat-viral diversity and patterns of emergence.

Learn more about Verena here!