Research Interests



Natural history of influenza viruses

Influenza has a complicated ecology. In addition to humans, influenza viruses can infect multiple animal hosts. We are interested in understanding natural history of influenza viruses to understand how influenza viruses emerge, transmit and spread among the wild birds, domestic animals, and humans and at the interface of animal-human interface.


Representative publications

Influenza vaccine and vaccination

Vaccination is the primary option for reducing the effects of influenza. Since 2010, annual influenza vaccination has been recommended for persons ≥6 months of age. However, influenza vaccine performance varies significantly between different influenza seasons, and reduced vaccine effectiveness has been observed against some influenza viruses. We are very interested in developing and applied novel approaches to optimize influenza vaccine strains selection, understanding molecular mechanisms causing poor vaccine performance, improving vaccine effectiveness and production, and developing next generation of vaccines.


Representative publications

Predicting influenza virus phenotype and disease outcome using machine learning, AI, and systems biology approaches

We are interested in developing, validating, and applying computational approaches such as machine learning, AI, and systems biology approaches to identify features determining influenza phenotypes and predict phenotypes for influenza risk assessment. We will focus on antigenicity, immunogenicity, and infectivity, pathogenesis, and transmission. Ultimately, given an influenza, we aim to predict whether this virus can infections in human, whether this virus can cause efficient transmission among humans, whether cause severe diseases in humans, whether this virus is protected by current influenza vaccines.


Representative publications

Other emerging and re-emerging diseases

Zoonotic pathogens pose a substantial global risk to public health and require an integrated One Health approach for their effective detection, control and mitigation or treatment. Over 60% of human infectious diseases originate in animals, predominantly from wildlife reservoirs, and over 70% of these zoonotic pathogens are “emerging”. In addition to influenza viruses, we are interested in natural history of other emerging and re-emerging diseases.


Representative publications