Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State

Thursday, October 2, from 11:00 a.m. to noon–David Kennedy, Associate Professor of Biology from Penn State, will present "Anticipating the evolution of pathogen resistance and new diseases ."

Monday, September 29, from noon to 1:00 p.m., welcome Kara Fikrig to CIDD and hear what her lab is up to,

A person stands at a podium in a conference room, presenting to an audience. The presentation slide projected on the screen reads 'Impacts of mosquito-borne disease' and features an image of a book titled 'The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator' by Timothy C. Winegard. Several people are seated and facing the presenter, listening attentively.

Ryan Smith presents on how mosquito biology influences pathogen transmission. 🦟

Thursday, September 25, from 11:00 a.m. to noon–Ryan Smith, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology from Iowa State University, will present "Mosquito immune cells and vector competence: A tale of two pathogens."

Monday, September 22, from noon to 1:00 p.m., hear from Isabella Cattadori, Professor of Biology at Penn State, on new working ideas on infection and nutrition.

OPEN INVITATION to the One Health Microbiome Symposium, May 13-14, 2026!! This is not your typical siloed topic conference. It unifies diverse research fields in microbiome science across Ag, Envtl, and Human Health. 1/n

www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-one-h...

Thursday, September 18, from 11:00 a.m. to noon–Katherine Restori, Assistant Research Professor from Penn State, will present "Preexisting immunity to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus reduces susceptibility to H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets."

Monday, September 15, from noon to 1:00 p.m., hear from Beth McGraw, Biology Professor and Department Head, and Shannon Cruz, Assistant Professor of Arts and Communications, on STIs (Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis) and Penn State wastewater.

Come and work with us! Review of candidates will begin ~1 October with rolling consideration thereafter. If you are unable to apply early, contact the search committee chair (me) to discuss timelines.

Monday, September 8, hear from @annepisor.bsky.social about the Society Lab and her research on how people use social relationships to navigate the impacts of environmental, social, and economic change on their well-being, health, and livelihoods.

Early epidemiological characteristics explain the chance of population-level virus persistence following spillover events Virus spillover into new host species can lead to outcomes ranging from dead-end infections to sustained epidemics. This study uses a nematode-virus model to show that early spillover traits, especial...

Read the paper by Shaw and Kennedy published in PLoS Biology.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Most viruses that spill over into new species burn out, but some persist. 🦠

A Penn State study led by David Kennedy and Clara Shaw found that infection prevalence and viral shedding were strong predictors, while severity and intensity were not.

science.psu.edu/news/what-tr...

Hologenomic structure of bacterial and fungal community composition in the West Nile virus vector Culex tarsalis Background: Microbiota play a crucial role in determining the ability for arthropod disease vectors to transmit pathogens. Microbial community structure can be heavily influenced by microbe-microbe in...

New work from the RasgonLab! Bacterial and fungal microbiomes are spatially structured across Culex tarsalis populations!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Unraveling the arc of vaccine progress The philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously described life in 1651 as “nasty, brutish, and short.” He was undeniably correct, with estimates of average life expectancy in the UK at the time ranging from 37...

Unraveling the arc of vaccine progress | Science

Featuring work from @theferrarilab.bsky.social.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Reducing the threats of rodent-borne zoonoses requires an understanding and leveraging of three key pillars: disease ecology, synanthropy, and rodentation Rodents have co-existed with humans for centuries, and frequently exchange pathogens. Historically, rodent-driven plague outbreaks scoured the Old Wor…

New review out in @thelancetplanet.bsky.social from our rodent-borne zoonoses workshop @ciddpsu.bsky.social 🐭🌍

Humans & rodents share a long history and many pathogens -from plague to mpox. Outbreak prevention needs socially + ecologically grounded solutions

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Full or Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

🎙️ JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: @ciddpsu.bsky.social Ctr for Infectious Disease Dynamics at PSU is searching for a Full or Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling. This is a unique, cross-university search for someone to become a leader in our community!

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

This is targeted at the Associate or Full level because we are specifically looking for candidates excited to lead collaborative research within the broad and diverse community at cidd.psu.edu and huck.psu.edu

This is a cross-University search with many Colleges and Departments participating. The department appointment will be tailored based on the candidate, so we're encouraging candidates with backgrounds as diverse as Biology, Entomology, Engineering, and Computer Science.

Full or Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

We are hiring! The Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State seeks an Associate or Full Professor in Infectious Disease Dynamics 🦠

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Announcing the Fall 2025 CIDD Seminar lineup! 🎉

Featuring talks from
@jessmetcalf.bsky.social ,
@cobey.bsky.social, @danahawley.bsky.social and more!

Happy World Mosquito Day! Hear from the @elizabethmcgraw.bsky.social lab on why they study mosquitos and the effect they have on humans 🦟

www.instagram.com/reel/DNlSx2x...

Expression of endogenous Anopheles gambiae microRNAs using an Anopheles gambiae densovirus (AgDNV) intronic expression system - Parasites & Vectors Background Anopheles gambiae densovirus (AgDNV) is a highly species-specific parvovirus that reaches high titers in adult Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes with few transcriptomic effects and minimal signi...

Very happy to have @entomososwin.bsky.social's thesis work finally published! Becky has been having an incredible month!

parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Hear from @machtingerlab.bsky.social if you should be worried about ticks.

Allocating limited surveillance effort for outbreak detection of endemic foot and mouth disease Author Summary Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) poses a significant economic burden in countries where it is endemic. Developing surveillance systems that are efficient at detecting outbreaks is essential...

Excited to share a study w José L. Herrera-Diestra, Katriona Shea, @mjtildesley.bsky.social + @theferrarilab.bsky.social assessing the effectiveness of surveillance informed by network/spatial data for detecting Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks when FMD is endemic journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Structure of tick-borne virus revealed at atomic resolution for the first time | Penn State University Rates of the Powassan virus infections — which can cause seizures and paralysis — are increasing across North America. Researchers from Penn State, the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department ...

Powassan virus is a scary emerging tick-borne virus that causes neurological disease. It is great to see that my @ciddpsu.bsky.social colleagues are on top of it.

www.psu.edu/news/researc...

Preexisting immunity to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus reduces susceptibility to H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets Prior infection with the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus confers protection against H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets.

Exciting new work from my @ciddpsu.bsky.social colleagues showing that pandemic H1N1 immunity reduces susceptibility to H5N1 infection and disease in ferrets.

Coverage of great work by my grad student @deepit.bsky.social on a new method to estimate subnational measles vaccination coverage for years without DHS surveys ... little did we know when we started that would be all years going forward.

Seasonal flu immunity protects against severe illness from bird flu in ferrets | Penn State University New research, led by scientists at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh and published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, indicates that immunity to a seasonal influenza virus known ...

Read more about this work from Troy Sutton, Katherine Restori, and more here: www.psu.edu/news/researc...

Research, led by scientists at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh, indicates that immunity to a seasonal influenza virus that began circulating in 2009 provides protection from severe illness from H5N1 — the strain causing the current bird flu outbreak — in a laboratory animal model.

Read more about this finding here:

science.psu.edu/news/predict...