RESEARCH FIELD

Zoonotic Disease Research

Zoonotic disease research investigates pathogens that transmit between animals and humans, encompassing the ecological, evolutionary, and epidemiological processes that drive spillover events and pandemic emergence. An estimated 60 percent of known infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic in origin, including influenza, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Nipah, and SARS-CoV-2. Metagenomic surveillance of wildlife populations in biodiversity hotspots is cataloguing the virosphere to build predictive models of spillover risk. Bat coronaviruses and filoviruses demonstrate the potential for rapid mutation and receptor adaptation required for human-to-human transmission. One Health frameworks integrate human, animal, and environmental health surveillance to detect unusual disease clusters at the human-animal interface before they become epidemics. Enhanced biosurveillance following COVID-19 has dramatically expanded sampling and sequencing capacity globally.