John Barton

  • Associate Professor/Secondary Appointment
Computational and Systems Biology

Research

The evolution of pathogens like HIV, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza presents a major threat to public health. My group works to combat this threat by studying how pathogens evolve and how they interact with the immune system. We’re particularly interested in questions related to the predictability of evolution and coevolution of hosts and pathogens. For example, which strains of a pathogen will become dominant in the near future? Can we guide evolution to prevent pathogens from escaping immune control or developing resistance to drugs? Our work combines methods from statistical physics, mathematical modeling, simulation, and data analysis to pursue these questions.