Dr Isobel Blake

I am a Research Associate in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, working with Dr Nicholas Grassly, Dr María-Gloria Basáñez and Dr Manoj Gambhir. My research is currently focussed on trachoma, the leading cause of infectious blindness. I aim to understand heterogeneities of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis transmission and elucidate the relationship between infection and clinical disease, to determine optimal trachoma control strategies for the ‘Global Elimination of Trachoma as a public health burden by 2020’. I also am interested in linking optimal control strategies inferred from the understanding of transmission to economic and logistical constraints of control programmes to inform cost-effective control strategies.

I also was the co-ordinator for the 2010 Global Health Short Course for medical students directed by Prof Alan Fenwick and  and Prof Helen Ward.

Publications

Blake IM, Burton MJ, Bailey RL, Solomon AW, West S, et al. (2009) Estimating household and community transmission of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 3: e401

Gambhir M, Basáñez MG, Burton MJ, Bailey RL, Holland MJ, Blake IM, Donnelly CA, Jabr I, Mabey DC, Grassly NC. (2009)'The development of an age-structured model for trachoma transmission dynamics, pathogenesis and control'. PLos Negl Trop Dis 3: e462

Gambhir M, Basáñez MG, Blake IM, Grassly NC. (2010 )Trachoma transmission and control modelling. In: Michael EM, Spear RC editors. Modelling Parasite Transmission and Control. ) Landes Bioscience