Dr Amy Pinsent

Amy completed her PhD at Imperial College in 2015, where her thesis focused on the dynamics of influenza A in non-human hosts and the emergence of novel viral linages through ressortment. During her PhD she developed an interest in understanding the dynamics of multi-strain pathogens, the ecological drivers of persistence and methodological approaches to identifying reassortant viruses of influenza in genetic data.

She gained experience in using mathematical modelling to help answer public health focused research questions collaborating with WHO during her first post-doc. In this post she looked at understanding and modelling the dynamics of the bacterial pathogen Trachoma to assess the feasibility of elimination, how elimination in certain areas many be accelerated and the role that serology may play in helping to quantify low-level transmission, confirm elimination and re-emergence.

In her role at LSHTM she is working on the vaccination and control of Streptococcus pneumonia examining how different dosing schedules of the vaccine impact the level of herd immunity developed within the population, and how serotype replacement. More broadly she has an interest in modelling the dynamics and understanding the epidemiology of multi-strain pathogens, and how the presence of multiple strains impacts the public health strategies we may need to implement. As well as investigating the role of alternative diagnostics for trachoma surveillance.