特雷弗-贝德福德 计算病毒学家

shiyi18

Trevor Bedford
Computational Virologist | Class of 2021
Developing tools for real-time tracking of virus evolution and the spread of infectious diseases.


Portrait of Trevor Bedford

Title
Computational Virologist
Affiliation
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Location
Seattle, Washington
Age
39 at time of award
Area of Focus
Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology
Website
Bedford Lab
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Nextstrain
Social
Twitter
Published September 28, 2021
ABOUT TREVOR'S WORK
Trevor Bedford is a computational biologist building tools for tracking and forecasting the spread of viral pathogens such as those that cause influenza, Ebola, and COVID. Drawing on a deep understanding of evolutionary and epidemiological theory, computational methods, and population genetics, Bedford examines how factors such as immune pressure, migration, and human behavior contribute to the spread of disease over time and within communities.

In early work on influenza viruses, Bedford dissected their genetic structuring—that is, the distribution of genetic variations in the virus among people—and determined the network of geographic spread. He also developed a unified framework for understanding influenza’s antigenic mutations (changes to a virus’s molecular features that enable it to evade immune system responses) that established the variation in evolutionary pace among influenza A viruses (H3N2 and H1N1) and influenza B viruses. Forecasting key differences in geographic spread, evolutionary rates, and antigenic changes across seasonal influenza viruses is critical to designing annual vaccines that can protect against the viruses most likely to spread and cause illness. Bedford plays a key role in this process through Nextstrain (originally called Nextflu), an open source platform that integrates real-time genetic sequencing data with models of evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics. Researchers can easily create visualizations of phylogenetic trees that show the distribution of mutations; the relatedness between virus strains, or lineages; and lineages’ growth over time and geographic associations. Bedford has since expanded Nextstrain to include other viruses that are important to global health, such as Zika and Ebola. His work clarifies chains of transmission and the duration and extent of undetected virus circulation.

More recently, Bedford has focused on real-time analysis of genomic samples of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). He was an early proponent of widespread testing and genomic sequencing, and his research showed how different strains were introduced into Washington state from different locations, such as China, New York City, and Europe. Bedford has built Nextstrain into a critical source of information about the genetic origins of divergent strains of the virus. Nextstrain democratizes analysis of COVID-19 for a wide global audience, and it has supported surveillance and epidemiological investigations of new strains as they emerge. As COVID-19 has laid bare, reducing time between sample collection, genomic analysis, and public health protocols—such as testing, distancing, and quarantining—is critical to minimizing disease spread and saving lives. Through his rigorous and timely analysis of evolutionary dynamics and commitment to creating open source and collaborative tools, Bedford is improving our collective ability to detect the emergence of novel viruses and to respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

BIOGRAPHY
Trevor Bedford received a BA (2002) from the University of Chicago and a PhD (2008) from Harvard University. From 2008 to 2011, Bedford was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, and from 2011 to 2013 he was a fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Evolutionary Biology. Bedford joined the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 2013, where he is now an associate professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division and the Computational Biology Program. Bedford also serves as an affiliate associate professor in the Departments of Genome Science and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. In 2021, he was selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. His articles have appeared in Nature, Science, Bioinformatics, and New England Journal of Medicine, among other scientific journals.



特雷弗-贝德福德
计算病毒学家｜2021级
开发用于实时跟踪病毒进化和传染病传播的工具。


特雷弗-贝德福德的画像

标题
计算型病毒学家
工作单位
弗雷德-哈钦森癌症研究中心，疫苗和传染病部
工作地点
西雅图，华盛顿
年龄
获奖时39岁
重点领域
微生物学、病毒学和免疫学
网站
贝德福德实验室
弗雷德-哈钦森癌症研究中心
下一个菌种
社交网络
推特
2021年9月28日发布
关于特雷弗的工作
特雷弗-贝德福德是一名计算生物学家，他建立了跟踪和预测病毒性病原体传播的工具，例如那些导致流感、埃博拉和COVID的病毒。凭借对进化和流行病学理论、计算方法和群体遗传学的深刻理解，贝德福德研究了诸如免疫压力、迁移和人类行为等因素是如何促进疾病在时间和社区内传播的。

在关于流感病毒的早期工作中，贝德福德剖析了其遗传结构--即病毒的遗传变异在人群中的分布，并确定了地理传播的网络。他还开发了一个统一的框架来理解流感的抗原突变（对病毒分子特征的改变，使其能够逃避免疫系统的反应），确定了甲型流感病毒（H3N2和H1N1）和乙型流感病毒之间的进化速度变化。预测各季节性流感病毒在地理传播、进化速度和抗原性变化方面的关键差异，对于设计能够防止最有可能传播和导致疾病的病毒的年度疫苗至关重要。贝德福德通过Nextstrain（原名Nextflu）在这一过程中发挥了关键作用，Nextstrain是一个开源平台，将实时基因测序数据与进化和流行病学动态模型相结合。研究人员可以很容易地创建可视化的系统发育树，显示突变的分布；病毒株或品系之间的关联性；以及品系随时间和地理关系的增长。此后，贝德福德将Nextstrain扩展到了对全球健康非常重要的其他病毒，如寨卡和埃博拉。他的工作澄清了传播链和未被发现的病毒流通的持续时间和程度。

最近，贝德福德专注于SARS-CoV-2（导致COVID-19的病毒）的基因组样本的实时分析。他是广泛测试和基因组测序的早期倡导者，他的研究表明不同的病毒株是如何从不同的地方，如中国、纽约和欧洲引入华盛顿州的。贝德福德将Nextstrain打造成了一个关于不同病毒株的遗传来源的重要信息来源。Nextstrain使全球广泛的受众对COVID-19的分析民主化，它支持对新出现的毒株进行监测和流行病学调查。正如COVID-19所揭示的那样，缩短样本采集、基因组分析和公共卫生协议--如测试、隔离和检疫--之间的时间对于最大限度地减少疾病传播和拯救生命至关重要。通过他对进化动力学的严格和及时的分析以及对创建开源和协作工具的承诺，贝德福德正在提高我们检测新型病毒的出现和应对传染病爆发的集体能力。

个人简历
特雷弗-贝德福德在芝加哥大学获得学士学位（2002），在哈佛大学获得博士学位（2008）。2008年至2011年，贝德福德是密歇根大学霍华德-休斯医学研究所的博士后研究员，2011年至2013年，他是爱丁堡大学进化生物学研究所的研究员。贝德福德于2013年加入弗雷德-哈钦森癌症研究中心，他现在是疫苗和传染病部门和计算生物学项目的副教授。贝德福德还担任华盛顿大学基因组科学系和流行病学系的副教授。2021年，他被选为霍华德-休斯医学研究所调查员。他的文章发表在《自然》、《科学》、《生物信息学》和《新英格兰医学杂志》等科学杂志上。