Dr. Cara Brook will combine approaches from field ecology, virology, genomics, and quantitative epidemiology to elucidate mechanisms driving the evolution of viral tolerance and longevity in bats, and the consequences of these host defense strategies on the evolution of virulent viruses. Specifically, Dr. Brook will leverage data from her longtime field study investigating viral dynamics in wild fruit bat hosts for potentially zoonotic pathogens in Madagascar, along with modern molecular and computational approaches to (a) identify if viral infection accelerates aging in bats, (b) determine whether the same genetic mechanisms both deter aging and promote viral tolerance, and (c) elucidate the impacts of these mechanisms on virus evolution. Dr. Brook’s holistic, cross-scale approach will be critical to predicting and preventing future zoonoses.
