With @trvrb @heyjudka and @lr_bio We speak with Trevor Bedford, Associate Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, about a wide-range of topics, including changes in scientific communication and publishing spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the power of genomic epidemiology for tracking the evolution of outbreaks, how this information can aid public health decisions, and preparing for and preventing the next pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the visibility of scientists and the scientific process to the broader public; suddenly, scientists working on virology and infectious disease dynamics have seen their public profiles rapidly expand. One such scientist is the special guest in this episode, Trevor Bedford, Associate Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
An expert in genomic epidemiology, he and his collaborators built Nextstrain, which shares real-time, interactive data visualizations to track the spread of viruses through populations.
a16z bio deal team partner Judy Savitskaya and Lauren Richardson chat with Trevor about how genomic epidemiology can inform public health decisions; viral mutation and spillover from animals into humans; what can be done now to prevent the next big pandemic; and the shift in scientific communication to pre-prints and open science.