<div dir="ltr">Hi all, <div><br></div><div>I am Cristina Lanzas. I am faculty at the department of Population Health and Pathobiology at North Carolina State University. I've recently moved my lab from the University of Tennessee to NCSU. The following is a brief intro of my lab work:</div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial">Our lab focus on the epidemiology and
ecology of infectious diseases in animal and human populations. </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:15px">We work with a range of pathogen-host systems including zoonotic pathogens and health-care associated diseases in humans. </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt">We combine data,
epidemiological analysis and mathematical models to study transmission
mechanisms, and to identify and design control measures to reduce the public
health burden associated with infectious diseases with emphasis on the role
that environment plays on transmission and the dissemination of antimicrobial
resistant pathogens (Lanzas and Chen, 2014). </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;text-align:justify">The rational design and
assessment of surveillance and control strategies for environmentally
transmitted pathogens require models that capture more realistic exposure
patterns and include spatial features of the pathogen transmission (Chen et al., 2013). For our current NIH funded project, we are</span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt"> using the
spora-producing </span><i style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt">C. difficile</i><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt"> as a
case-study to improve mathematical models used to assess environmental
transmission (Lanzas et al., 2011). We are developing compartmental and agent-based models that include
explicit functional forms for different environmental exposure pathways, and
consider spatial features of pathogen transmission. In addition to using the
models to design and evaluate interventions to reduce the burden of </span><i style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt">C. difficile</i><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt">, the models are used to
investigate the effect of the characterization of the environmental pathogen
distribution and scale with the generated model dynamics. And in collaboration with mathematicians, we aim to use the models generated in this project to address
some significant mathematical challenges associated to the analysis of
agent-based models. These challenges include how to reduce spatially
explicit agent-based models to mean-field dynamics, and how to transfer optimal
control strategies from the mean-field models to the agent-based models.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt">Ref:</span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt"><br></span></div><div>
<ol style="margin-top:0in" start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:14.85pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Lanzas, C</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">., and Chen, S. 2014. Complex system modeling for
veterinary epidemiology. Preventive
Veterinary Medicine. </span><span style="text-indent:0.25in"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">DOI: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2014.09.012</span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:14.85pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;text-indent:0.25in">Chen,
S., Sanderson, M., White, B., Amrine, D., </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;text-indent:0.25in">Lanzas, C.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;text-indent:0.25in"> 2013.
Temporal-spatial heterogeneity in animal-environment contact: implications
for the exposure and transmission of pathogens. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;text-indent:0.25in">Nature Scientific Reports, </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;text-indent:0.25in">3:3112</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:14.85pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;text-indent:0.25in">Lanzas, C</span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;text-indent:0.25in">.,</span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;text-indent:0.25in"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span lang="DE" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;text-indent:0.25in">Dubberke, E.R,</span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;text-indent:0.25in">, Lu, Z., Reske, K.A., Gröhn, Y.T. 2011.
Epidemiological model for Clostridium difficile transmission in
health care settings. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
32: 553-561</span></li></ol>
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