Dr Alex Best
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Senior Lecturer
a.best@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 3749
+44 114 222 3749
Hicks Building
Full contact details
Dr Alex Best
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Hicks Building
Hounsfield Road
Sheffield
S3 7RH
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Hicks Building
Hounsfield Road
Sheffield
S3 7RH
- Profile
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I studied for a BSc in Mathematics & Philosophy (Durham University, 2005) and an MRes in Mathematics in the Living Environment (York University, 2006), before completing my PhD in the Animal & Plant Sciences department at Sheffield University in 2010. I went on to postdoctoral positions at Sheffield (Animal & Plant Sciences) and Exeter (Biosciences) before moving to the School of Mathematics & Statistics at Sheffield as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in 2013, later becoming a lecturer and then senior lecturer. My teaching and research interests are in mathematical modelling of biological systems, specifically focussed on disease spread and evolution. I am also the School's One University joint-deputy for EDI and co-chair of the London Mathematical Society's Good Practice Steering Committee. Personal Website: abestshef.github.io
- Research interests
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Mathematical modelling, epidemiology, ecology, evolution
Summary of Research Project(s)
I develop and analyse mathematical models of the ecology and evolution of infectious disease. I am especially interested in (1) modelling the spread of plant diseases, accounting for local spread and seasonality, as well as fitting models to empirical data, and (2) modelling the co-evolution of host defence and parasite infectivity, exploring how the underlying ecology drives selection.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
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All publications
Journal articles
- Fitting a lattice model with local and global transmission to spread of a plant disease.. PLoS Comput Biol, 22(2), e1013404.
- The impact of sterility-mortality tolerance and recovery-transmission trade-offs on host-parasite coevolution.. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2017). View this article in WRRO
- Parasite evolution of host manipulation strategies with fluctuating ecological dynamics. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 37(3), 302-313.
- Comparing intervention measures in a model of a disease outbreak on a university campus. Royal Society Open Science, 10(11). View this article in WRRO
- How do fluctuating ecological dynamics impact the evolution of hosts and parasites?. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1873).
- Clonal population expansion of Staphylococcus aureus occurs due to escape from a finite number of intraphagocyte niches. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1-11. View this article in WRRO
- A sterility–mortality tolerance trade-off leads to within-population variation in host tolerance. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 85(3). View this article in WRRO
- How local interactions impact the dynamics of an epidemic. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 83(12).
- Simultaneous evolution of host resistance and tolerance to parasitism. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 34(12), 1932-1943. View this article in WRRO
- How seasonal variations in birth and transmission rates impact population dynamics in a basic SIR model. Ecological Complexity, 47, 100949-100949.
- The impact of varying class sizes on epidemic spread in a university population. Royal Society Open Science, 8(6). View this article in WRRO
- Evolutionarily stable strategies are well studied in periodically fluctuating populations.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(18).
- Herd immunity. Current Biology, 31(4), R174-R177.
- A mathematical model shows macrophages delay staphylococcus aureus replication, but limitations in microbicidal capacity restrict bacterial clearance. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 497.
- The evolution of host resistance and parasite infectivity is highest in seasonal resource environments that oscillate at intermediate amplitudes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1927), 20200787-20200787.
- The effect of temporal fluctuations on the evolution of host tolerance to parasitism. Theoretical Population Biology, 130, 182-190.
- The paradox of tolerance: parasite extinction due to the evolution of host defence.. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 474, 78-87. View this article in WRRO
- The Impact of Selective Predation on Host–Parasite SIS Dynamics. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 81(7), 2510-2528.
- Understanding the role of eco-evolutionary feedbacks in host-parasite coevolution. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 464, 115-125. View this article in WRRO
- Host-pathogen coevolution in the presence of predators: fluctuating selection and ecological feedbacks. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1885). View this article in WRRO
- The evolution o constitutive and induced defences to infectious disease. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1883). View this article in WRRO
- The evolution of host defence to parasitism in fluctuating environments. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 440, 58-65. View this article in WRRO
- Host-parasite fluctuating selection in the absence of specificity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1866). View this article in WRRO
- The evolution of host defence when parasites impact reproduction. Evolutionary ecology research, 18, 393-409. View this article in WRRO
- Evolution of Host Defense against Multiple Enemy Populations. American Naturalist, 187(3), 308-319. View this article in WRRO
- Spatial heterogeneity lowers rather than increases host-parasite specialization. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 28(9), 1682-1690. View this article in WRRO
- Parasite Exposure Drives Selective Evolution of Constitutive versus Inducible Defense. Current Biology, 25(8), 1043-1049.
- Evolution, the loss of diversity and the role of trade-offs. Mathematical Biosciences, 264, 86-93.
- The evolution of host resistance to disease in the presence of predators. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 365, 104-111.
- Higher resources decrease fluctuating selection during host-parasite coevolution.. Ecology Letters, 17(11), 1380-1388. View this article in WRRO
- How specificity and epidemiology drive the coevolution of static trait diversity in hosts and parasites.. Evolution, 68(6), 1594-1606.
- The coevolutionary implications of host tolerance.. Evolution, 68(5), 1426-1435.
- A limited host immune range facilitates the creation and maintenance of diversity in parasite virulence. Interface Focus, 3(6).
- The effects of seasonal forcing on invertebrate-disease interactions with immune priming.. Bull Math Biol, 75(11), 2241-2256.
- The evolution of costly acquired immune memory.. Ecol Evol, 3(7), 2223-2232.
- The evolutionary dynamics of within-generation immune priming in invertebrate hosts.. J R Soc Interface, 10(80), 20120887.
- Seasonality selects for more acutely virulent parasites when virulence is density dependent. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 280(1751).
- Evolution of host resistance towards pathogen exclusion: the role of predators. EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY RESEARCH, 14(2), 125-146.
- The epidemiological consequences of immune priming.. Proc Biol Sci, 279(1746), 4505-4512.
- The importance of who infects whom: the evolution of diversity in host resistance to infectious disease.. Ecol Lett, 15(10), 1104-1111.
- Predation on infected host promotes evolutionary branching of virulence and pathogens' biodiversity. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 307, 29-36.
- The implications of immunopathology for parasite evolution.. Proc Biol Sci, 279(1741), 3234-3240.
- Local transmission processes and disease-driven host extinctions. Theoretical Ecology, 5(2), 211-217.
- Epidemiological, evolutionary, and coevolutionary implications of context-dependent parasitism. American Naturalist, 177(4), 510-521.
- Local transmission processes and disease-driven host extinctions. Theoretical Ecology, 1-7.
- Host resistance and coevolution in spatially structured populations.. Proc Biol Sci, 278(1715), 2216-2222.
- The evolution of host-parasite range.. Am Nat, 176(1), 63-71.
- Resistance is futile but tolerance can explain why parasites do not always castrate their hosts.. Evolution, 64(2), 348-357.
- The implications of coevolutionary dynamics to host-parasite interactions.. Am Nat, 173(6), 779-791.
- The role of ecological feedbacks in the evolution of host defence: what does theory tell us?. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 364(1513), 27-36.
- Maintenance of host variation in tolerance to pathogens and parasites.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 105(52), 20786-20791.
- Which species will succesfully track climate change? The influence of intraspecific competition and density dependent dispersal on range shifting dynamics. Oikos, 116(9), 1531-1539.
- Deleterious mutations can surf to high densities on the wave front of an expanding population. MOL BIOL EVOL, 24(10), 2334-2343.
- The coevolution of parasite virulence and host investment in constitutive and induced defence. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Book chapters
- Adaptive Dynamics, Reference Module in Life Sciences Elsevier
Datasets
Preprints
- The effects of vertical transmission on a spatially-structured host-parasite model, openRxiv.
- Fitting a lattice model with local and global transmission to spread of a plant disease, openRxiv.
- A sterility–mortality tolerance trade-off leads to within-population variation in host tolerance, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- The impact of varying class sizes on epidemic spread in a university population, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- How local interactions impact the dynamics of an epidemic, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Fitting a lattice model with local and global transmission to spread of a plant disease.. PLoS Comput Biol, 22(2), e1013404.
- Research group
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Mathematical & Statistical Modelling
- Grants
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Prizes and Awards
Fulbright Scholarship (2021)
- Teaching activities
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I teach on a number of mathematical modelling modules, including:
* MPS125 Mathematical Modelling
* MPS321 / MPS465 Mathematical Biology
* MPS358 Mathematical Modelling of Natural Systems
* MPS112 Essential Skills for Chemists
* MPS212 Programming in Python
- Professional activities and memberships
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London Mathematical Society Good Practice Steering Committee co-chair