Network epidemiology

modeling spread of disease and risky behaviors through populations

This work focuses on modeling disease spread, contagion and diffusion processes across social and technical spaces in living systems. The goal is to develop mechanistically realistic predictive models of human disease and mobility at the meta-population level. Models are used to forecast spreading of infectious agents to determine risk threat such as thresholds of disease, containment strategies, and effectiveness of targeted interventions. Results from these projects are reported to the WHO and CDC who use our recommendations to set protocols and policies.

Featured publications

The unequal effects of the health–economy trade-off during the COVID-19 pandemic

Marco Pangallo, Alberto Aleta, R. Maria del Rio-Chanona, Anton Pichler, David Martín-Corral, Matteo Chinazzi, François Lafond, Marco Ajelli, Esteban Moro, Yamir Moreno, Alessandro Vespignani & J. Doyne Farmer
Nature Human Behaviour
November 16, 2023

COVID-19 is linked to changes in the time–space dimension of human mobility

Clodomir Santana, Federico Botta, Hugo Barbosa, Filippo Privitera, Ronaldo Menezes & Riccardo Di Clemente
Nature Human Behaviour
July 27, 2023

COVID-19 amplified racial disparities in the US criminal legal system

Brennan Klein, C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Benjamin J. Schafer, Zarana Bhadricha, Preeti Kori, Jim Sheldon, Nitish Kaza, Arush Sharma, Emily A. Wang, Tina Eliassi-Rad, Samuel V. Scarpino & Elizabeth Hinton
Nature
April 19, 2023

Recent publications

The unequal effects of the health–economy trade-off during the COVID-19 pandemic

Marco Pangallo, Alberto Aleta, R. Maria del Rio-Chanona, Anton Pichler, David Martín-Corral, Matteo Chinazzi, François Lafond, Marco Ajelli, Esteban Moro, Yamir Moreno, Alessandro Vespignani & J. Doyne Farmer
Nature Human Behaviour
November 16, 2023

Insights from exact social contagion dynamics on networks with higher-order structures

István Z. Kiss, Iacopo Iacopini, Péter L. Simon, Nicos Georgiou
arXiv
September 22, 2023

Necessary and sufficient conditions for exact closures of epidemic equations on configuration model networks

Istvan Zoltan Kiss, Eben Kenah & Grzegorz A. Rempała
Springer Link
August 2, 2023

COVID-19 is linked to changes in the time–space dimension of human mobility

Clodomir Santana, Federico Botta, Hugo Barbosa, Filippo Privitera, Ronaldo Menezes & Riccardo Di Clemente
Nature Human Behaviour
July 27, 2023

COVID-19 amplified racial disparities in the US criminal legal system

Brennan Klein, C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Benjamin J. Schafer, Zarana Bhadricha, Preeti Kori, Jim Sheldon, Nitish Kaza, Arush Sharma, Emily A. Wang, Tina Eliassi-Rad, Samuel V. Scarpino & Elizabeth Hinton
Nature
April 19, 2023
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Featured news coverage

Featured project

The Global Epidemic and mobility (GLEAM) project has developed new computational techniques and software for the simulation of emerging infectious diseases spreading across the world. The team uses a network approach to map complex human mobility patterns that account for social interaction behaviors, travel patterns (eg, commuting routes), and transportation infrastructures (eg, metro and airline connections). The simulation interface provides a dynamic visualization of spatial contagion across geographical census areas, and quantitatively evaluates the geo-temporal evolution of the disease.

Major funders

NIH/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research, IARPA, Metabiota, WHO, CDC, ISI Foundation