19th Freeman-Seage Symposium on Infectious Disease Epidemiology

This symposium was hosted in memory of Professors Freeman and Seage and honors their leadership and many contributions to the interdisciplinary ID Epi Program.

This event took place on Thursday, September 28, 2023, and was open to the Harvard Longwood Community. The 19th Freeman-Seage Symposium included an afternoon of talks and poster presentations by faculty, students, postdocs, and research scientists participating in the HSPH Interdisciplinary Concentration in ​Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

Talks in Kresge G3

• Host-genome-to-pathogen-genome interaction analysis identifies determinants of human tuberculosis, presented by ChuanChin Huang, Instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
• Characterizing pathways to population immunity against SARS-CoV-2, presented by Fayette Klaassen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Global Health and Population, HSPH.
• Memory T-cell composition contributes to lineage-specific host susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, presented by Fang-Chi Hsu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, HMS.
• Estimating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dengue in Brazil, presented by Kirstin Roster, Postdoctoral Fellow at CCDD, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, HSPH.
• Modeling the 2022 MPX Outbreak with a Mechanistic Network Model, presented by Emma Crenshaw, PhD Candidate in Biostatistics, HSPH.
• Trends in antibiotic resistance for nine pathogens in the US Veterans Affairs Healthcare System from 2007 to 2022, presented by Mui Pham, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.
• The association between chest radiographic abnormalities and subsequent tuberculosis in adults, presented by Qi Tan, Research Fellow, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, HMS.
• Spatiotemporal trends in Group A streptococcal pharyngitis in the United States, presented by Madeleine Kline, PhD Candidate in Population Health Sciences, HSPH.

Posters in the FXB atrium

• Fairness and efficiency considerations in COVID-19 vaccine allocation strategies: A case study comparing front-line workers and 65-74 year olds in the United States, presented by Eva Rumpler, PhD Candidate, Population Health Sciences, HSPH.
• Genomic epidemiology of strain and antibiotic resistance dynamics for three major causes of bacteremia in a Canadian metropolitan area, 2006-2019, presented by Mui Pham, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.
• Longitudinal evolution of SARS-CoV-2 within an immunocompromised host, presented by Beau Schaeffer, G2, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.
• Evaluating the cross-country genome stability of neonatal invasive GBS isolates, presented by Lea Cavalli, Candidate, PhD, Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.
• Identifying vaccine effectiveness in the test-negative design under an equi-confounding assumption, presented by Christopher Boyer, Postdoctoral Fellow, CCDD, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.
• Characterizing zoonotic spillover and viral discovery across viral families, presented by Aishani Aatresh, Undergraduate Researcher, CCDD.
• Assessment of sewer connectivity in the United States and its implications for equity in wastewater-based epidemiology, presented by QinQin Yu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, HSPH.
• Rapid replacement of Omicron sublineages driven by modest mutations in the United States, December 2021 to January 2023, presented by Katherine Jia, Candidate, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.
• Impact of vaccination on antimicrobial resistance, presented by Ruchita Balasubramanian, PhD Candidate, Population Health Sciences, HSPH.
• Distribution of waning immunity and the dampening of waves approaching endemicity, presented by Ilan Rubin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CCDD, Department of Epidemiology, HSPH.