Network science provides a natural framework to encode the complexity of life-science phenomena. Across the fields of biology, ecology, epidemiology and public health, an increasing attention is recently devoted to the web of interactions taking place among infectious disease agents and between the pathogens and the living species hosting them. Indeed, pathogens do not spread in isolation and disease outbreaks are the result of complex ecological processes where different infectious agents compete or cooperate, undergo mutations and cross the species barriers, spreading through a variety of host populations. The host contact network, which is the substrate of infection transmissions, is heterogeneous, high-dimensional and dynamics. Understanding such biological complexity is key to address some major public health emergencies, such as the spread of antibiotic resistance, and the disease emergence from zoonotic sources – as in the case of Ebola and Zika.
Such plethora of phenomena provides an important field of application of advanced theoretical frameworks that are recently attracting a large interest in the network science community. Multilayer networks and temporal networks can describe the multi-level structure of host networks resulting from spatiotemporal variations and multiple host populations. The theory of interacting spreading processes on networks has shed light on the interference between multiple interacting pathogens and its interplay with the substrate network topology. Such new theoretical concepts allow to describe the multiple ingredients of disease ecological systems at different scales – from the microscopic mechanisms of pathogen interaction, to the level of populations and their spatio-temporal organization.
Such plethora of phenomena provides an important field of application of advanced theoretical frameworks that are recently attracting a large interest in the network science community. Multilayer networks and temporal networks can describe the multi-level structure of host networks resulting from spatiotemporal variations and multiple host populations. The theory of interacting spreading processes on networks has shed light on the interference between multiple interacting pathogens and its interplay with the substrate network topology. Such new theoretical concepts allow to describe the multiple ingredients of disease ecological systems at different scales – from the microscopic mechanisms of pathogen interaction, to the level of populations and their spatio-temporal organization.
The Organizers
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Network Epidemiology at NetSci 2018
Network disease modelling is fast growing within the NetSci community. This year NetSci 2018 will host four symposia in a two-days event tackling different aspects of network epidemiology. This satellite is one of those. Don't miss Network Epidemiology at NetSci 2018!
