James Lloyd-Smith

Professor

email: jlloydsmith@ucla.edu
phone: 310-206-8207
office: 4135 Terasaki Life Sciences Building (TLSB)
website

Recent Courses

EE BIOL 296 - Seminar: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
EE BIOL 297 - Selected Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
EE BIOL 599 - PhD Dissertation Research and Writing

Research Interests

I study the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of infectious disease in animal and human populations, and at the animal-human interface where novel human pathogens such as SARS or pandemic influenza can emerge. By combining theoretical models with data, I aim to deepen our understanding of fundamental principles of disease transmission and adaptation, and apply those principles to interpret observed patterns, uncover driving mechanisms, and design effective control policies. I work on a diverse range of disease-host systems, including leptospirosis in California sea lions, monkeypox in humans and wildlife in central Africa, and influenza and other emerging diseases in human populations.

Selected Publications

Schreiber, S.J., Ke, R., Loverdo, C., Park, M., Ahsan, P., Lloyd-Smith, J.O. (2021) Cross-scale dynamics and the evolutionary emergence of infectious diseases. Virus Evolution. 7:veaa105. https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veaa105

D.H. Morris*, K.C. Yinda*, A. Gamble*, F.W. Rossine, Q. Huang, T. Bushmaker, R.J. Fischer, M.J. Matson, N. van Doremalen, P.J. Vikesland, L.C. Marr, V.J. Munster, J.O. Lloyd-Smith. (2021) Mechanistic theory predicts the effects of temperature and humidity on inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped viruses. eLife. 10: e65902. https://elifesciences.org/articles/65902

C.E. Snedden*, S. K. Makanani*, S.T. Schwartz, A. Gamble, R.V. Blakey, B. Borremans, S.K. Helman, L. Espericueta, A. Valencia, A. Endo, M.E. Alfaro, J.O. Lloyd-Smith. (2021) SARS-CoV-2: Cross-scale insights from ecology and evolution. Trends in Microbiology 29: 593-605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2021.03.013

K.C. Prager, M.G. Buhnerkempe, D.J. Greig, A.J. Orr, F. Gomez, E. Jensen, R.L. Galloway, Q. Wu, F.M.D. Gulland, J.O. Lloyd-Smith. (2020) Linking longitudinal and cross-sectional biomarker data to understand host-pathogen dynamics: Leptospira in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) as a case study. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 14:e0008407. https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0008407

K. M. Gostic, E. A. Wunder, V. Bisht, C. Hamond, T. R. Julian, A. I. Ko, J. O. Lloyd-Smith (2019). Mechanistic dose-response modeling of animal challenge data shows that intact skin is a crucial barrier to leptospiral infection. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B. 374: 20190367. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0367

Lloyd-Smith, J.O. (2017) Predictions of virus spillover across species. Nature 546: 603-604. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature23088

Plowright, R.K., Parrish, C.R., McCallum, H., Hudson, P.J., Ko, A.I., Graham, A.L., Lloyd-Smith, J.O. (2017) Pathways to zoonotic spillover. Nature Reviews Microbiology 15: 502-510. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro.2017.45

Gostic, K.M., Ambrose, M.R., Worobey, M, Lloyd-Smith, J.O. (2016) Potent protection against H5N1 and H7N9 influenza via childhood hemagglutinin imprinting. Science. 354: 722-726. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aag1322

Lloyd-Smith, J.O., Mollison, D., Metcalf, C.J.E., Klepac, P., Heesterbeek, J.A.P. (2015) Challenges in modelling infectious disease dynamics. Epidemics 10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436515000067

Lloyd-Smith, J.O. (2013) Vacated niches, competitive release and the community ecology of pathogen eradication. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B. 368: 20120150. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2012.0150

Lloyd-Smith, J.O., George, D., Pepin, K.M., Pitzer, V.E., Pulliam, J., Dobson, A.P., Hudson, P.J., Grenfell, B.T. (2009) Epidemic dynamics at the human-animal interface. Science 326: 1362-1367. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1177345

Lloyd-Smith, J.O., Schreiber, S.J., Kopp, P.E., Getz, W.M. (2005) Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence. Nature 438: 355-359. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04153