Giacomo Zilio
Postdoc
I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the interplay between ecology, epidemiology and evolution in shaping host-parasite dynamics and infection outcomes. Parasites are ubiquitous in nature, and exert strong selective pressures on virtually all organisms. Understanding how they can rapidly evolve under multiple stressors and over the time of an epidemic is highly relevant for public health, agriculture and intervention strategies.
Eco-evolutionary approaches, jointly tracking epidemiological and evolutionary changes in a spatial context, have the potential to help evaluate the risk of outbreaks and control the evolution of virulent parasites. This is crucial in the ongoing global alteration of habitats and changing mobility which increase the probability of spillover events, biological invasions and reshape the distributions of hosts and parasites.