University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Research interests

Research in the Rohani Lab focuses on population biology, usually of host-natural enemy interactions, with a view to understanding fundamental processes in population ecology and evolution. First, we use a combination of mathematical modelling and data analysis to understand the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases of humans, including childhood infections and emerging infectious diseases. Second, we use a combination of laboratory experiments and statistical and mathematical models to understand the evolution, persistence and competitive coexistence of insect-parasitoid-pathogen assemblages.

Dynamics of human infectious diseases
Much of current research in the lab is based on understanding long term data sets on the spatio-temporal patterns of morbidity and mortality caused by the great childhood microparasitic infections (such as measles and whooping cough).   The analyses of these data have provided interesting insights into the mechanisms of disease transmission and the ecology of infectious diseases. 

Host-parasitoid assemblages
We have established laboratory populations of insect host-parasitoid-pathogen assemblages. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Steve Sait (Department of Biology, University of Leeds, UK). We are studying the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella (a stored-product pest) and its competitor, the Almond moth, Ephestia cautella. Both species are subject to attack by a suite of natural enemies, including a solitary ichneumonid wasp (Venturia canescens) and and two species of baculoviruses (the P. interpunctella granulovirus and E. cautella nucleopolyhedrovirus; PiGV and EcNPV respectively).

See the Rohani Lab website to read more.