Gavin James Smith

Professor

Programme Director 

Email

Contact: 66011109

Bio Research Publications

Professor Gavin Smith is the Director of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) at Duke-NUS Medical School.

I am broadly interested in the ecology, genetic and antigenic evolution, vaccine strain selection, molecular diagnostics, pathogen discovery, population dynamics, molecular epidemiology, and interspecies transmission of infectious diseases. My research aims to understand viral disease ecosystems in Asia, including at the animal-human interface, to inform and enhance disease control. While I primarily work on influenza and coronaviruses, my lab studies a wide range of respiratory and enteric viruses. I conduct human and animal disease surveillance throughout Asia via an extensive network of collaborators. The gathered information is used in large-scale computational analyses to generate hypotheses on the role of virus mutations on their phenotype, such as fitness or virulence. We then test these hypotheses in the laboratory using tissue culture and animal models.


My research is highly collaborative and involves working with clinicians, veterinarians, epidemiologists, ecologists, ornithologists, mathematicians and computer scientists to integrate diverse experimental approaches. My work's unifying theme is understanding the underlying processes of disease emergence and the interaction between host and pathogen. We conduct research combining ideas from different fields, including evolutionary genetics, virology, ecology, and infectious disease epidemiology. My team performs human and animal disease surveillance, isolates and characterizes the pathogen, and then conducts large-scale analyses to generate hypotheses that we test using tissue culture and animal models. I work primarily on influenza and coronaviruses but also study many other respiratory viruses and emerging infectious diseases. Another vital part of my work is engaging with scientists across Asia to assist in developing local research and technical capacity for disease detection, prevention and control.

Visit the Laboratory of Virus Evolution here: www.gavinsmith.io


Selected recent publication are listed below while a full list is available in my Google Scholar profile.

1. Pronyk PM, de Alwis R, Rockett R, Basile K, Boucher YF, Pang V, Sessions OM, Getchell M, Golubchik T, Lam C, Lin R, Mak TM, Marais B, Ong RTH, Clapham HE, Wang LF, Sim E, Suster C, Smith GJD, Sintchenko V (2023). Advancing pathogen genomics in resource-limited settings. Cell Genomics 3: 100443.

2. Zeller MA, Ma J, Wong FY, Tum S, Hidano A, Holt H, Chhay T, San S, Koeut D, Seng B, Chao S, Ng GGK, Yan Z, Chou M, Rudge JW, Smith GJD, Su YCF (2023). The genomic landscape of swine influenza A viruses in Southeast Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 120: e2301926120.

3. Su, YCF, Ma JZJ, Ou TP, Pum L, Krang S, Raftery P, Kinzer MH, Bohl J, Ieng V, Kab V, Patel S, Sar B, Wong FY, Jayakumar J, Horm VS, Boukli N, Yann S, Troupin C, Heang V, Garcia-Rivera JA, Sengdoeurn Y, Heng S, Lay S, Chea S, Darapheak C, Savuth C, Khalakdina A, Ly S, Baril L, Manning JE, Simone-Loriere E, Duong V, Dussart P, Sovann L, Smith GJD, Karlsson EA (2023). Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Cambodia, January 2020 to February 2021. Virus Evolution 9: 1–10.

4. Low DHW, Ch’ng L, Su YCF, Linster M, Zhang R, Kwak ML, Borthwick SA, Hitch A, Smith GJD, Mendenhall IH (2023). Cencurut virus: A novel Orthonairovirus from Asian house shrews (Suncus murinus) in Singapore. One Health 16: 100529.

5. Yousefi M, Lee WS, Chan WOY, He W, Mah MG, Deerain JM, Wang L, Arcinas C, Yong CL, Yan B, Tan D, Sia WR, Gamage AM, Hsu A, Li S, Linster M, Yang X, Ghosh S, Anderson DE, Smith GJD, Tan CW, Wang LF, Ooi YS (2023). Betacoronaviruses SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43 infections in IGROV-1 cell line require aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Emerging Microbes & Infections 12: 2256416.

6. Su W, Harfoot R, Su YCF, DeBeauchamp J, Joseph U, Jayakumar J, Crumpton JC, Jeevan T, Rubrum A, Franks J, Pascua PNQ, Kackos C, Zhang Y, Ji Y, Zhang MT, Leung C, Jones JC, Kercher L, Krauss S, Pleschka S, Chan MCW, Webster RG, Wu CY, Peiris JSM, Webby RJ, Smith GJD, Yen HL (2021). Ancestral sequence reconstruction pinpoints adaptations that enable avian influenza virus transmission in pigs. Nature Microbiology 6: 1455–1465.

7. Virk RK, Jayakumar J, Mendenhall IH, Moorthy M, Lam P, Linster M, Lim J, Lin C, Oon LEL, Lee HK, Koay ESC, Vijaykrishna D, Smith GJD, Su YCF (2020). Divergent evolutionary trajectories of influenza B viruses underlie their contemporaneous epidemic activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 117: 619-628.

8. Young BE, Fong SW, Chan YH, Mak TM, Ang LW, Anderson DE, Lee CYP, Amrun SN, Lee B, Goh YS, Su YCF, Wei WE, Kalimuddin S, Chai LYA, Pada SK, Tan SY, Sun L, Parthasarathy P, Chen YYC, Barkham T, Lin RTP, Maurer-Stroh S, Leo YS, Wang LF, Renia L, Lee VJ, Smith GJD, Lye DC, Ng LFP (2020). Effects of a major deletion in the SARS-CoV-2 genome on the severity of infection and the inflammatory response: an observational cohort study. The Lancet 396: 603–611.

9. Su YCF, Anderson DE, Young BE, Linster M, Zhu F, Jayakumar J, Zhuang Y, Kalimuddin S, Low JGH, Tan CW, Chia WN, Mak TM, Octavia S, Chavatte JM, Lee RTC, Pada SK, Tan SY, Sun L, Yan GZ, Maurer-Stroh S, Mendenhall IH, Leo YS, Lye DC, Wang LF, Smith GJD (2020). Discovery and genomic characterization of a 382-nt deletion in ORF7b and ORF8 during the early evolution of SARS-CoV-2. mBio 11: e01610–20.

10. Ali M, Yaqub T, Mukhtar N, Imran M, Ghafoor A, Shahid MF, Naeem M, Iqbal M, Smith GJD, Su YCF (2019). Avian Influenza A(H9N2) Virus in Poultry Worker, Pakistan, 2015. Emerging Infectious Diseases 25: 136-139.