Martin Walker

My research involves the use of mathematical models to describe and understand the population dynamics and biology of parasitic helminth infections in humans. I am particularly interested in the use of both Bayesian and frequentist statistical methods to fit complex models to biological data.

Filariasis

I am currently working with the Anti-Wolbachia Consortium (AWOL) which is led by Professor Mark Taylor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The aim of AWOL is "to develop a new chemotherapy treatment against Wolbachia - a bacterial endosymbiont of filarial nematodes responsible for onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis)." Together with Dr María-Gloria Basáñez and Dr Tom Churcher, I am developing a mathematical model of the effects of doxycycline treatment on the population dynamics of onchocerciasis. The aim of this work is to predict the efficacy of doxycycline in reducing the burden of infection in areas where the use of ivermectin is either inappropriate- because of co-endemicity with loiasis or because of a risk of ivermectin resistance -or for "mopping up" in areas targeted for elimination but where transmission has not yet been interrupted.   

Ascariasis

As a PhD student (supervised by Dr María-Gloria Basáñez, Dr Andrew Hall and Professor Sir Roy Anderson) I worked on human Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm) infection  The title of my thesis was "The population biology of Ascaris lumbricoidies infections in humans". The focus of my project was on using statistical models to analyse data and further understanding into the population biology and epidemiology of roundworm infection.