*Current PhD Opportunity at the MRC Biostatistics Unit*

The BSU is an internationally recognised research unit specialising in statistical modelling with application to medical, biological or public health sciences. Details of the work carried out in the Unit appear on our website http://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk.

The Unit is offering 1 full PHE funded PhD Studentship (UK / EU National only) to commence in Easter Term 2016:

    The studentship is for full time study only.
    Available for commencement in Easter Term 2016
    Full award to cover Cambridge University fees (at the Home/EU rate only) and a competitive stipend for a period of 3 years only.

To apply for this project- please see http://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/training/phd-programme/application-procedure/

Closing date is Monday 2nd November 2015 at midday GMT

*Public health implications of association between influenza virus and pneumonia-causing bacteria: secondary bacterial infection and severity of influenza*.

*PhD Supervisors*: Daniela De Angelis (MRC Biostatistics Unit, Public Health England (PHE)), Xu-Sheng Zhang (PHE) and Andre Charlett (PHE)

*PhD Advisors*: Richard Pebody (PHE) and John William McCauley (The Frances Crick Institute)

Influenza continues to be a public health threat and reducing its incidence and consequences is one of Public Health England’s strategic goals. Although many theoretical studies have been carried out on the spread and control of influenza infection, the synergistic effects between influenza virus and pneumonia-causing bacteria on influenza transmission dynamics and influenza related mortality have not been sufficiently examined. Such synergism has been clearly demonstrated at individual level but its public health implications at population level are still unclear. Understanding how synergism influences the spread and mortality of pandemic influenza is crucial to the design of effective interventions.

In this project age structured multi-pathogen epidemic transmission models will be developed to investigate how age, viral-bacterial synergism, and enhanced mortality due to co-infection interact to affect the spread and severity of pandemic influenza. Using influenza and pneumonia data from USA and UK, and assuming a dynamical system where an influenza virus invades a population in which pneumonia is endemic, the goals of this project are:

- to explain the observed heterogeneity in age-profile of mortality between influenza epidemics

- to enhance our understanding of the mortality of pandemic influenza resulting from complications from co-infection between the influenza virus and the pneumonia-causing bacteria at population level.

- to demonstrate the role that interventions (such as vaccines, antivirals and antibiotics) can play in reducing the risk of co-infection and the mortality due to secondary bacterial infection and, thus, the total seasonal and pandemic influenza mortality.

This work is funded by *Public Health England*.

*Requirement for the PhD candidate*: the PhD student should have backgrounds in mathematical sciences such as mathematics, statistics, physics, and engineering and should have strong interest in applying their mathematical knowledge and skills in biology, particularly in the field of infectious diseases and public health.

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