peopleAngela Luis
Graduate Student
Email: adl12@psu.edu
Phone: 814-863-1815
Fax: 814-865-9131
Office: 505 ASI
Research
Since hantavirus was first discovered in the US in 1993, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sponsored longitudinal studies on the rodent reservoir host (the deer mouse). These studies have demonstrated a qualitative correlation among environmental variables, population dynamics and incidence of hantavirus in deer mice, and consequent risk of infection in humans.
My research aims to (a) quantitatively describe how environmental factors affect hantavirus dynamics in its reservoir host in Montana; and (b) to create an ecological model which could predict epizootics. Important questions include:
- What are the key drivers in the population dynamics of the deer mouse?
- Are the dynamics strongly seasonal or density dependent?
- How do environmental variables, such as precipitation and temperature, affect the population dynamics?
- Is hantavirus infection density dependent?
- What is the transmission rate and does it differ between age classes or sexes?
- How do environmental variables and seasonality affect the disease dynamics?
My research is in collaboration with Rick Douglass at Montana Tech of the University of Montana and Jim Mills at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.