Marlin Figgins

Postdoc

I am currently a second year Applied Mathematics PhD student in the Bedford lab. My research is focused on developing methods to forecast the transmission and evolution of viruses by analyzing multiple data sources at various scales jointly. In particular, I am interested in how transmission, immune, and evolutionary dynamics occur simultaneously and how we can leverage the connections between these scales to better analyze outbreaks.

Papers

High-throughput neutralization measurements correlate strongly with evolutionary success of human influenza strains

antigen-prime: Simulating coupled genetic and antigenic evolution of influenza virus

Frequency dynamics predict viral fitness, antigenic relationships and epidemic growth

Inferring variant-specific effective reproduction numbers from combined case and sequencing data

SARS-CoV-2 diversity and transmission on a university campus across two academic years during the pandemic

Fitness models provide accurate short-term forecasts of SARS-CoV-2 variant frequency

Spike deep mutational scanning helps predict success of SARS-CoV-2 clades

Positive selection underlies repeated knockout of ORF8 in SARS-CoV-2 evolution

Underdetected dispersal and extensive local transmission drove the 2022 mpox epidemic

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants on a university campus

Projects

rt-from-frequency-dynamics - Inferring variant-specific effective reproduction numbers from combined case and sequencing data

evofr - Tools for evolutionary forecasting

relative-fitness-mechanisms - Frequency dynamics predict viral fitness, antigenic relationships and epidemic growth

ncov-forecasting-fit - Assessing frequency forecasts of SARS-CoV-2 fitness models

mpox-dynamics - Phylodynamics of the 2022 mpox epidemic