1999 — 2003 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Diapausing Eggs and the Dynamics of Plankton Communities @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Caceres & Tessier
DEB-9816047 & 9816191
Many features of ecological systems are influenced by the life-history traits of the organisms that occur with them. This research project will examine links between a key life-history stage, dormancy, and a series of ecological features of habitats where it can play an important role in controlling the occurrence and influence of organisms. Dormancy is a important factor in the life histories of freshwater zooplankton species. This collaborative research project will examine the functional role of diapause in the existence of a key zooplankton genus, Daphnia, and the influence of its occurrence on other components of lake-plankton systems. It will allow plankton food-web studies to go beyond their typical year-by-year basis to take a longer term perspective. It will test specifically whether there is a trade off between investments in dormancy and the persistence of active stages for specific lakes and daphnid populations. This project will develop a multi-year perspective that links life-history theory on dormancy to trophic dynamics with the context of a natural gradient of habitat permanence.
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1 |
2003 — 2007 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Physical Limnology For the Parasite Ecologist @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
How infectious diseases influence population dynamics and community interactions is an understudied aspect of aquatic ecology. This work focuses on the ecological interaction between a common microparasitic fungus and its Daphnia host species, and the consequences to coexisting zooplankton and their phytoplankton prey. The PIs are merging three disciplines (community ecology, physical limnology and epidemiological modeling) to explain spatial and temporal patterns of host-parasite dynamics. Comparative and manipulative experiments are being conducted in parallel with modeling to couple physical mixing with host-parasite population dynamics in a broad set of lakes. The coupling of ecological and physical-mixing processes is a generally important goal since most aquatic microparasites, unlike their animal hosts, do not swim. Hence, sinking and resuspension of parasite spores from the sediment may limit horizontal transmission and spread of diseases in lakes and oceans.
This work is motivated by the seasonal timing of disease outbreaks in natural populations of Daphnia and the substantial variability in the severity of epidemics among lakes differing in morphometry and potential for wind mixing. The PIs are examining both the temporal dynamics of host-parasite interactions within single lakes and broader scale physical-biological processes that govern host-parasite outcome among multiple lakes. Laboratory and field studies are being used to parameterize a standard host-parasite model and derive predictions, especially of threshold effects, and tested in whole water-column manipulative experiments.
Measurements of lake thermal structure, bottom shear stresses and turbulent velocity scales, in conjunction with changes in spore concentration, are enabling model development to predict spore suspension and resuspension from lake sediments. Output from the physical mixing model are coupled to the model to predict the likelihood of epidemic outbreaks. Multi-generational dynamics of host and parasite are being explored in large enclosures to examine the indirect effects of infection within one Daphnia population on competitive interactions with congeners, and their phytoplankton prey.
Broader impacts: Using this multiple-lake, Daphnia-parasite system, this collaborative research is addressing the general phenomenon of natural variation in disease prevalence and its impact on the structure of food webs. This research brings together junior and senior faculty with combined expertise in population and community ecology, physical limnology and modeling. Second, the PIs are a poorly studied area of aquatic ecology, the role of pathogens. Disease ecology is an emerging area of concern, but despite substantial evidence for pathogens as important components of food web, freshwater ecologists have largely ignored them. Third, the study of disease ecology at multiple temporal and spatial scales is being approached with a combination of descriptive, comparative and manipulative experiments with modeling. The project emphasizes training of undergraduates, graduates and a postdoc at the interface of physical limnology, population modeling, and community ecology. Finally, the work on physical limnology and parasitism is enhancing the knowledge base for the lakes around KBS (a field station) and directly benefit the research programs of aquatic ecologists from multiple institutions who conduct their work in these systems. It is contributing to the K-12 teacher partnership project at KBS and to other outreach activities.
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1 |
2003 — 2011 |
Caceres, Carla Lynch, Michael [⬀] Zolan, Miriam (co-PI) [⬀] Lively, Curtis Housworth, Elizabeth (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Fibr: Causes and Consequences of Recombination
Intellectual Merit. This project is focused on one of biology's deepest mysteries - the evolutionary causes and consequences of recombination. The investigative team consists of cell biologists, ecologists, parasitologists, quantitative geneticists, genomicists, and mathematicians. The study organism, the planktonic microcrustacean Daphnia pulex, provides an exceptional array of opportunities for recombination research that is unavailable with any other system: a wide range of recombination intensities among natural populations, the presence of multiple sexual and asexual lineages, a powerful set of genomic tools, well understood ecology, ease of experimental manipulation, and a "living-fossil" record that can be resurrected from lake sediments. Specific goals include: 1) characterization of the genetic changes associated with the transition from meiotic to mitotic progeny production; 2) evaluation of whether the mutation rate (including the activity of mobile-genetic elements) is affected by meiosis; 3) a test of the hypothesis that mutation load accumulates in the absence of recombination; 4) evaluation of the extent to which recombination modifies the range of variation upon which natural selection acts; and 5) a test of the hypothesis that host-parasite evolution drives the evolution of recombination and sex. These studies will be informed by an integrated research program involving high-throughput sequencing, microarray analysis, and quantitative-genetic surveys. Guided by the empirical results, mathematical models will also be developed for understanding the evolutionary fates of genomic features of asexual organisms. Finally, the results of this study will be integrated into an emerging evolutionary framework suggesting that many aspects of the genomic architecture of multicellular organisms arose passively in response to mildly deleterious mutation accumulation in populations with small effective sizes. Broader Impacts. The potential impacts of this project on science, society, and education are numerous. First, an undergraduate program will help instill an interdisciplinary philosophy while broadening career choices for students from multiple institutions, with a particular focus on minority recruitment. Second, the research program will be tightly integrated with the newly founded Daphnia Genomics Consortium, an international group of scientists from across the life sciences (http://daphnia.cgb.indiana.edu/). This will firmly establish D. pulex as a premier model system for studies in ecological and evolutionary genomics. Third, the research has significant applied implications in the areas of parasite-resistance evolution, clonal propagation, and genetic engineering.
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0.957 |
2003 — 2009 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Pecase: Exploring Population Persistence and Community Assembly Through "Resurrection Ecology" @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Proposal Title: PECASE: Exploring Population Persistence and Community Assembly Through "Resurrection Ecology" Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dormant eggs of zooplankton accumulate in large numbers in lake sediments, where they can remain viable for centuries. When eggs are removed from the lake and hatched, they provide a living link to past communities. Dozens of lakes in Vermilion Co., Illinois were formed within the past century by strip-mining, and I will use these lakes to address questions regarding how different factors influence the persistence ability of populations, and consequently, the development of aquatic communities. I will take sediment cores that extend to the formation of each lake. This presents a unique opportunity to examine factors responsible for why populations become extinct, since the eggs contained within the core display the entire colonization history of zooplankton, and demonstrate patterns of species replacement through time. Many of these dormant eggs can be hatched, allowing me to use multiple populations of Daphnia to investigate the relative importance of within population (genetic diversity, life-history variation) versus among population (competition, predation) processes in determining changes in species composition over time. As part of the education component, I will produce a manual for elementary school teachers that will include activities for self-guided field trips of the lakes located a state park.
This project was originally funded as a CAREER award, and was converted to a Presidential Early Career Award for Engineers and Scientists (PECASE) award in September 2004.
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1 |
2006 — 2010 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Community Ecology of Disease: Control of Epidemics by Species Interactions @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
New diseases continue to appear in animal populations. This disturbing trend prompts challenging questions about disease, such as, why do some populations become infected and not others? Recently, ecologists have suspected that other species, such as those that provide food for hosts, compete with hosts for food, and prey on sick hosts, can inhibit or facilitate disease spread. Therefore, interactions with other species may influence the distribution of wildlife disease. However, an exploration of this possibility requires an integration of epidemiology with community ecology. Few disease systems offer opportunities for such integration, but Hall and Caceres aim to exploit an experimentally tractable one using an aquatic parasite (fungus)-host (water flea, Daphnia) system. They will harness decades of study of Daphnia as grazers of algae, as competitors with other zooplankton for that algae, and as prey for fishes and invertebrates. Each of these interactions likely influences disease spread among the Daphnia hosts. For instance, quantity and quality of food resources influence the production of infective forms of the parasite. However, because they consume but do not produce these infective forms, other planktonic competitors may reduce disease. Finally, predators may inhibit disease by eating infected hosts. These mechanisms are complex and will thus be addressed by constructing mathematical models, refining those models using experiments, and testing model predictions with observations of epidemics. The processes examined in this study and the modeling work should apply to many other disease systems. Ultimately, this work will produce theories that can guide efforts to understand and control disease in wildlife populations.
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1 |
2007 — 2010 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Dissertation Research: Existence and Controls of Alternative Stable States in Pond Producer Communities @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
What determines natural variation in the distribution of species? One theory suggests that part of the variation results from alternative stable states. When alternative stable states are present, different sets of species can occur in habitats that seem similar. However, one species set is often more desirable than others in terms of ecosystem services provided. While many examples of alternative stable states have been proposed, few experiments have rigorously demonstrated them, complicating management approaches. Evidence suggests three community states exist in wetlands, dominated by (1) floating plants, (2) submerged plants, and (3) phytoplankton. In this project, an experiment will be performed to test the stability of the plant states and whether the community response is different at different nutrient levels. In watertight cages in research ponds, floating plants and nutrients will be added to preexisting submerged plant communities in several treatments, and ecosystem responses will be monitored.
It is crucial to identify ecosystems with alternative stable states, because catastrophic shifts between states can occur that traditional management practices do not address. In wetlands, native and invasive floating plant outbreaks can decrease plant and animal biodiversity. This research will help identify mechanisms behind these outbreaks, leading to better control strategies and a better understanding of their effects. This project incorporates educational opportunities for undergraduate and high school students, and its results will be communicated to scientists and the public through publications and K-12 outreach activities.
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1 |
2009 — 2012 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Eager - Eco-Evolutionary Feedback On Community Assembly @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Understanding the interplay between ecological and evolutionary processes is essential for developing a robust theory of community assembly. With the imminent construction of numerous temporary ponds in an experimental forest near Syracuse, NY, there is the unique opportunity to use these systems as models for testing several aspects of how ecological and evolutionary factors feedback as species colonize new habitats. The project will manipulate independently both genetic and species diversity of invertebrates immediately after pond construction, and measure how initial establishment influences subsequent genetic diversity, species diversity, and the evolution of life history traits. Through a controlled, large-scale, field experiment, the project addresses three questions: (1) To what extent do species interactions versus dispersal limitation influence community assembly? (2) How does genetic diversity influence community assembly? (3) How does the assembling community influence important fitness traits? The immediate results of this EAGER should provide insight into how ecological (e.g., species diversity and interactions) and evolutionary factors (e.g., genetic diversity and evolution of life history traits) interact when influencing the dynamics of this landscape of communities. Taking advantage of this time-limited opportunity to control the pond communities from their construction will also lead to more interesting longer-term studies as the communities develop.
This project will result in the training of one post-doctoral fellow, one graduate student and several undergraduates (several of whom are women and/or members of ethnic groups that are underrepresented in science). Public outreach will be accomplished by adding a module related to this award to an existing outreach website (www.life.uiuc.edu/caceres/teachers). Cáceres and Schulz will develop the lessons together, using state standards from both New York and Illinois. Project participants will be part of a multi-disciplinary research team evaluating the role of constructed temporary ponds in restoration efforts, especially in the conservation of endangered amphibians.
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1 |
2011 — 2015 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Testing Mechanistic Connections Between Sex, Foraging and Parasitism Along An Ecological Gradient @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Individuals of the same species often differ in important traits, and these differences are known functions of genetic and environmental influences. For most species, however, a mechanistic understanding of the origin and maintenance of individual variation is still missing. This project proposes mechanistic connections among three seemingly unrelated traits: investment in sexual versus asexual reproduction, feeding performance on rich versus poor resources, and susceptibility to parasites. The investigators hypothesize that differences in feeding rates create a causal chain of relationships that ultimately promotes the maintenance of diversity through basic ecological mechanisms. To test these ideas, the research combines monitoring of biodiversity and diseases in natural populations with laboratory experiments designed to disentangle genetic versus environmental factors shaping the traits of individuals. By determining how seemingly unrelated traits are integrated into distinct strategies, and examining how the frequency of different strategies varies along a natural ecological gradient, the research will provide novel insights into the ecological pressures maintaining phenotypic and genetic variation in natural populations.
Results from this study will significantly advance understanding of how diseases spread and how biodiversity is maintained. Diverse educational opportunities will be provided for undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, and research technicians. The investigators will develop a public lecture series, a summer science camp, and a new biology-mathematics course, and support activities focused on recruitment, retention and mentoring of students from under-represented groups in STEM.
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1 |
2011 — 2017 |
Mcmillan, William (co-PI) [⬀] Suarez, Andrew [⬀] Rodriguez-Zas, Sandra (co-PI) [⬀] Caceres, Carla Robinson, Gene (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Igert: Vertically Integrated Training With Genomics @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award is built around two grand challenges in biology: 1) How do genomes interact with the environment to produce biological diversity? and 2) How are biological systems integrated from molecules to ecosystems? Our training model is aimed at preparing students so that they are empowered to learn how an organism?s traits emerge from, and are continually shaped by, a complex interplay of genetic information stored in DNA and environmental information that an organism experiences throughout its life. This training will equip students with the knowledge, tools and perspectives needed to address pressing scientific and societal problems, including: effects of climate change on agriculture and food security; responses of organisms and ecosystems to anthropogenic influences on landscapes; emergence of infectious diseases, and influences of genes on behavior.
This proposal uses a ?back-to-the-future? educational model that asserts that the best way to use genomics to address grand challenges in biology is to have a graduate program that blends state-of-the-art training in genomics with an integrated, taxon-oriented, perspective. Our guiding principle is that to be able to use powerful new genomic resources as effectively as possible, students need to have strong foundation in the basic biology of the organisms they are studying. Another cornerstone of this IGERT is the recruiting and mentoring of underrepresented minorities into a scientific discipline. Because genomic topics often deal with provocative issues, students will also get training in scientific ethics and on how to communicate sensitive topics to the public.
IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
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1 |
2011 — 2016 |
Rapti, Zoi (co-PI) [⬀] Kantorovitz, Miriam Deville, Robert Caceres, Carla Dietze, Michael |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Ubm Group: Biomathematics Research and Training For Undergraduates At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
This project is providing undergraduate students with early research experiences at the interface of biology and mathematics and developing a biomathematics training program to persist beyond the duration of this grant funding. The program is recruiting annual cohorts of ten students and features four major components: i) a fall-term project-based course in which students work on a number of different group projects and acquire a common set of skills; ii) original research projects - starting in the spring and continuing through the summer - in which mixed teams of mathematics and biology students do research under the joint mentorship of biology and mathematics faculty; iii) a research seminar where students and faculty report regularly on their ongoing research projects; and iv) program assessment activities designed to determine the effectiveness of the different program components and mentoring activities, the impact of the overall program on student education and the extent to which the program can be institutionalized at the University of Illinois and other universities. The intellectual merit of the project lies in the way the interdisciplinary research projects are grounded in the students' experiences in the core project-based class where they encounter a range of topics that reflect modern research approaches that lie outside the normal "coverage" in either discipline. The students also read and discuss classic papers in mathematical biology, which in turn helps prepare them for the subsequent research seminar. The broader impacts of the project are felt through the participation of the undergraduate researchers as presenters in the annual Illinois Science Olympiad where they interact with and serve as role models for potentially hundreds of secondary school student attendees. The project is also carrying out a comprehensive assessment whose findings hold promise to help inform other institutions that are interested in developing and sustaining similar intense undergraduate research opportunities.
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2014 — 2017 |
Caceres, Carla Rapti, Zoi (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Friendly Competition - Infusing Ecology and Evolution At the Frontiers of the Dilution Effect in Disease Ecology @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Outbreaks of disease continue to increase in wild populations, and understanding this increase has become a major environmental challenge. A popular explanation is that loss of biodiversity, and particularly of species that are resistant to disease, encourages disease epidemics. Thus, enhancement and preservation of species diversity might reduce disease and associated negative effects on host populations. This project combines new mathematical models with experiments to challenge this explanation in a food web/community context, using Daphnia (an aquatic invertebrate) and a fungal pathogen, to explore how the dilution effect of multiple pathogen hosts plays itself out in the face of ecological (interspecific competition) and evolutionary dynamics. The PI's propose that key traits determining transmission also affect interactions with other community members, exploitative competitors and their shared prey in this case, which may alter the details of host-pathogen dynamics, particularly the dilution effect. Models and experiments together will determine whether competition among hosts also influences the spread of disease, whether nutritional value of the food for which hosts compete influences susceptibility to disease, and whether rapid adaptation of hosts to disease can counteract the loss of biodiversity, potentially reducing disease outbreaks. An interdisciplinary team of researchers will tackle these issues using common freshwater organisms that are infected by a virulent pathogen. The Daphnia-fungus system is ideal for asking elegant theoretical questions, and the proposed ambitious experiments will generate empirical data to test the theory.
This multi-disciplinary project will produce new insights into a provocative option for disease control. This project will also enhance training opportunities for students and postdoctoral researchers, with particular focus on members of underrepresented groups and undergraduates working with mathematics and biology. Additionally, the investigators will work through non-governmental organizations, high schools, a children's museum, and a program for middle school girls to disseminate results and train future scientists with hands-on projects.
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1 |
2017 — 2020 |
Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: How Do Predators Spread Disease? Tests of Five Ecological and Eco-Evolutionary Mechanisms With Disease in the Plankton @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
A practical goal of disease ecologists is to find ways to stop or slow the spread of infection from host to host. A popular idea is that predators control disease outbreaks by killing infected prey which are weaker and thereby easier to capture. However, this proposal warns that predators may sometimes spread disease in host populations. The researchers will use organisms living in lakes to test five ways in which predators could spread disease. These ideas are that predators: (1) while eating prey, physically spread parasites into prey habitat; (2) can increase food supply for prey, and more food can cause higher parasite production within infected hosts; (3) can shift the composition of prey populations towards certain ages and sizes that get infected more easily; (4) can kill other species that control disease; and (5) can cause genetic changes to prey populations, making them more susceptible to disease organisms. The project will focus on water fleas (the hosts), a deadly fungal parasite, and an insect predator to test these possibilities. The research uses these organisms as a model system: outbreaks of this fungus can be sampled in lakes, created in experiments within lakes and in the lab, and can be understood using mathematical models. These new ideas, once tested thoroughly in the lab and verified in nature, will help managers make prudent decisions on how to control disease outbreaks in wild and domestic animal populations. The project will train many students, and focus on engaging those in underrepresented groups. This project integrates three approaches. First, it will invest in a survey of fungal epidemics in water flea hosts in 40 lakes. The data from this large survey will be used to generate complex statistical models that test the first four mechanisms (ideas) given above. Second, it uses controlled experiments. One experiment will test mechanisms (2)-(4) with factorial manipulation of predatory insects and "competitor-diluters" (other water flea species which eat parasite propagules). A second experiment will investigate details of mechanisms (1)-(3). A third experiment investigates a tradeoff among clonal genotypes of the host; genotypes which better escape predation are more vulnerable to parasites. The hypothesis is that predators will shift host populations, via rapid evolution, towards bigger epidemics via this tradeoff. Third, this project develops a new suite of parameterized, mathematical (dynamical) models, designed to evaluate each of the mechanisms separately and together.
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1 |
2017 — 2019 |
Caceres, Carla Stewart, Tara |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Dissertation Research: Ecologically Variable Immunity and Its Consequences For Parasite Dynamics @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
An important goal of researchers who predict disease epidemics is to know how the parasites that cause them move through a population of hosts. In making predictions about epidemics, people consider how and when susceptible and infected hosts come into contact with one another, but they generally do not consider what happens after the parasite gets inside its host. However, the within-host battles between host and parasite could also be important for disease spread. These within-host battles happen because a host's body is constantly resisting and defending against parasites. It is important to consider these dynamics in predicting disease dynamics because not all hosts are equally equipped to fend off parasites and diseases. Ultimately, hosts that have lower immunity are more likely to allow parasites to spread. In this project, the researcher will focus on populations of an invertebrate that lives in lakes in which they experience large parasite epidemics every year. The researcher will improve our understanding of disease spread by incorporating information about how variability in immunity affects it with host-to-host contact information. The results of this project will help scientists better understand the importance of immune defenses when parasites infect humans, farm animals, and wildlife populations. It will also enable the training of a graduate student, and support projects aimed at encouraging underrepresented minority, female and low-income undergraduate and grade school students to be involved in science.
Our understanding of how ecological and immunological factors interact in natural populations to determine both an individual's probability of infection and the subsequent overall disease prevalence remains limited. Working with a model host-parasite system (Daphnia host and fungal parasite), this research examines the mechanisms underlying immune function, as well as the consequences of variable immunity for parasite transmission. Specifically, the researcher will examine how environmental stressors (e.g. resource quality and availability) shape natural Daphnia populations' mean levels of and variation in immune function. The establishment and spread of the highly virulent parasite within these populations will then be quantified, while tracking each population's levels of exposure and infection success through time. The research relies on tools from multiple disciplines, including ecology, quantitative biology, transcriptomics, and immunology. Moreover, the project integrates theories from disease ecology and ecological immunology to examine disease processes across scales: from the genome, to the individual, to the population and community.
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1 |
2018 — 2021 |
Rapti, Zoi [⬀] Caceres, Carla |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Modeling Multi-Host Multi-Pathogen Infectious Diseases @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Many pathogens - human and animal alike - act in tandem. The effects of two or more pathogens on the same host might not be easy to predict based on the known effect of each pathogen acting alone. Actually, many disease systems are composed of multiple hosts and multiple pathogens. The behavior and changes of pathogen and host populations in time are of interest to scientists and the public, when population conservation and management or contagion containment are considered. However, mathematical models of such systems become high-dimensional and contain many parameters that need to be determined from existing data. Their mathematical analysis is also not straightforward. As a study system, two Daphnia hosts (waterflea) and four of their pathogens will be considered. The two hosts also act as competitors for food resources and are subject to predation. Hence, they consist a suitable eco-epidemiological system for the development of new models and techniques. Progress made in terms of modeling and mathematical analysis will be applicable to other disease systems, such as those of pollinators, like bees and butterflies. This work will also create opportunities for the interdisciplinary training of students, both graduate and undergraduate. The investigators will partner with local high-schools and a children's museum to disseminate their findings and engage and train younger generations, with emphasis on underrepresented minorities.
Through data-theory coupling, biologically realistic models will be generated. The diversity of hosts and pathogens under consideration will allow the investigation of a wide range of interactions among them. The resulting mathematical models will be highly nonlinear. They will be used to form testable hypotheses and to reveal the mechanisms that shape the epidemics. Besides models based on differential equations and discrete dynamical systems, coarse grained approximations will also be developed. Moreover, information theoretical techniques will be used as measures of the complexity of observed and simulated time-series and to reveal any existing patters, as well as chaos. This integrated approach will be used to reveal insights into the drivers of epidemics and facilitate their prediction.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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1 |
2020 — 2025 |
Caceres, Carla Pascual, Mercedes (co-PI) [⬀] Whitaker, Rachel Heath, Katy (co-PI) [⬀] Newton, Irene (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Bii-Implementation: Gems: Genomics and Eco-Evolution of Multi-Scale Symbioses @ University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Humans, and the animals and plants around them, live in a microbial world. It is now well-known that microbes and viruses infect, interact and move through the genomes of every organism on Earth. Relationships among organisms, and with their microbes, can dramatically change the traits, behaviors, and functions of the host plant or animal. Sometimes these interactions are beneficial and sometimes they can be detrimental by causing disease. Many influence host function and can have hidden but important global scale impacts, driving the rates of responses to climate change, health and disease, antibiotic resistance, and more. Understanding how nested interactions within the microbial world occur and influence our ecosystems is critical to controlling their impact. The new Biology Integration Institute, Genomics and Eco-evolution of Multi-Scale Symbiosis (GEMS), focuses on the classical species interaction between clover and honeybee pollinators as a model to understand the impact and dynamics of the myriad of microbes nested within them. The project takes an integrative approach to understand how molecular interactions impact the ecosystem. As a $20 billion US industry, the outcomes of the project studying clover/honeybee nested genomes has practical value as well as being a model for addressing fundamental questions in integrative biology. The researchers in GEMS are collaborative, diverse, interactive scientists and educators who take an inter-disciplinary approach to answer critical questions about how nested genomes interact and affect the world. The project uses a shared leadership model with co-mentorship between trainer and trainee and multisite educational activities. The established institute is designed to integrate biological disciplines to understand how nested genomes respond to environmental change.
GEMS will address the fundamental biological question, How do symbioses unify biology, from molecule to ecosystem? The goal of this project is to establish a framework for how the phenotypic variation generated by the mobility of nested symbionts influences the adaptability of traits and the strength and stability of species interactions. Ultimately, the Institute aims to understand how this variation impacts ecosystem responses to environmental change. The Institute is grounded in the canonical symbiosis between flowering plants and insect pollinators (clover and honeybees), expanding to include interactions nested in their microbial world. The research leverages the extensive knowledge in multiple nested interactions (plant?pollinator, legume?rhizobium, honey bee?microbiome) to build connections within and across systems from the molecular processes that govern establishment of symbiosis and extend phenotypic traits to define how they interact and evolve together in the natural world. Data are integrated with ecological and evolutionary theory to generalize beyond the focal systems to build predictive models. Computer science, statistics, and mathematics expand both the range of biological questions asked and the impact of their answers. Along with the traditional academic silos dividing researchers into molecular and organismal units that prevent a unified view of biology are many others, such as those separating microbe from macrobe, plant from animal, student from faculty, education from research, and diversity, equity, and inclusion from science. Through K-12 education in Spanish and targeting excellence with Project Microbe and the Jim Holland program in three urban and rural communities in the Midwest, GEMS focuses on the intersecting goals of changing how biology is done and who does it, unifying biology by including the small but powerful so often overlooked.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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