Dr Alice Richardson (Biostatistician & Leader - RSPS)

Title: Where Population Health meets Biological Data Science

Abstract: In this talk I will explore the space where population health and biological data science meet. This exploration will travel from infectious disease outbreaks to machine learning and onwards towards population health genomics. I’ll discuss the potential of these methods to improve the health of populations, not just individuals, and highlight the contribution that data analysis makes to all of these areas. I’ll also describe some of the research projects in the Research School of Population Health that occupy the meeting space between biology, health and data.

Dr Xia Hua (DECRA Fellow / Lecturer - MSI)

Title: Biological Data Integration: Tempo and Mode in Evolution

Abstract: In 1944, George G. Simpson published a seminal book called Tempo and Mode in Evolution that had tremendous influence on the evolutionary synthesis. Since then, whether the microevolution of population genetics is sufficient to explain the patterns of macroevolution observed by palaeontology has been one of the most intriguing and challenging questions in evolutionary biology. In order to answer the question, we need to be able to integrate biological data on both microevolutionary scale and macroevolutionary scale, such as molecular sequences, species distribution, fossil records, paleoclimate, etc. From a practical point of view, being able to integrate different types of data allows us to use other types of data to inform the type of data that is often limited, such as fossil records. In the talk, I will introduce an approach to integrate biological data under a phylogenetic framework and briefly describe the general mathematical model for each type of data.

Seminars held fortnightly from 2-3pm on Mondays at various locations, light refreshments will follow.

All welcome to attend.