Infectious diseases
Adaptation and evolution of infectious diseases: from pathogens to societies
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the impact of infectious diseases on human societies, public health, national economies, social life, politics, and the media. This historical episode adds to recent human and animal epidemics and rising antibiotic resistance, coinciding with unprecedented environmental changes.
This “epidemic of epidemics” is linked to the extraordinary capacity of pathogens to evolve and adapt. In turn, humans, animals, and other living organisms continuously develop strategies—genetic, behavioral, or political—to avoid, tolerate, or resist pathogens. The current pandemic highlights the difficulty societies face in implementing strategies that anticipate these ongoing cycles of adaptation and evolution.
This program expands the management of emerging infectious diseases to social, animal and environmental health, bringing together ecological, biological, clinical, epidemiological, psychosocial, socio-economic and political perspectives. By exploring pathogen and host variability, as well as evolutionary and social feedbacks, we prepare for response and management of infectious risks.
What biological, clinical, and psychosocial indicators are needed to develop a comprehensive approach to managing infectious diseases? These questions will be addressed through five objectives:
- assessing pathogen and host adaptations at biological, ecological, and psychosocial levels;
- studying the impact of individual and collective beliefs regarding health and disease control on epidemiological dynamics;
- understanding the impact of these adaptations on host-pathogen interactions, antimicrobial resistance, and infection severity;
- proposing preventive and curative solutions that incorporate adaptation to sustainably control disease emergence, spread, and public health management;
- evaluating the feedback effects of preventive and curative solutions on pathogens, societies, and ecosystems.
Workshop facilitators
Patricia Doublet
University Professor, Head of the "Legionella Pathogenesis" team, CIRI
Philippe Polomé
University Professor, Université Lumière Lyon 2
Claire Valiente Moro
University Professor, Lyon 1 Université
Agnès Leblond
Professor of Equine Internal Medicine
Funded projects
Seed Funding projects — 24 months
Structuring projects — 48 months
Volatile organic compounds analysis using
innovative machine learning and biostatistical approaches for enhanced diagnosis of viral respiratory infection.
Alexandre GAYMARD | CIRI / HCL
Pierre BORGNAT | LP-ENS
Understanding the interaction between
henipavirus and their natural bat reservoir.
Branka HORVAT | CIRI
Guillaume NOEL | VetAgro Sup
Generating complex physiological lung tissue
using 3D bioprinting to study respiratory
pathologies.
Fabienne ARCHER | IVPC
Emma PETIOT | ICBMS
Karen MOREAU | CIRI
SPAtial DEtection of HBV-infected people for
targeted prevention interventions.
Isabelle CHEMIN | CRCL
Mauricio FUENTES VALLEJO | CLB