Francesco Di Lauro

I am a modeller with a background in Theoretical Physics and a PhD in Applied Maths. During my PhD, I worked on models for epidemic spreading on networks. I have also acquired experience in coding (mainly C, R, Python) and Statistics. You can find a list of my publications here. 

I joined the group of Christophe Fraser at the Big Data Institute as a Postdoc in 2021.

I mostly work on HIV epidemic spreading in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly on the quantitative analysis of the data from the HPTN01 (PopART) trial, within the [PANGEA consortium. My research focuses on understanding how sexual partnership networks in sub-Saharan Africa are shaping the dynamics of HIV spreading, and how to tailor public policy interventions aimed at reducing the burden of HIV on the population based on this knowledge; for example, what is the role of the hard-to-reach individuals who may have a high number of sexual partners, and therefore may be at high risk of acquiring/transmitting HIV? How much would a strategy focused on this sub-population reduce the overall incidence, compared to different choices? Answering such questions involves working with big data*, developing/maintaining epidemic models**, and collaborating with other members of the statistics and modelling team, as well as researchers around the World. I am also trying to bring in information gathered from Phylogenetic analysis into epidemic models, a task that is challenging but necessary, as recent advances in the field are giving us an unprecedented flux of high-quality data that are of paramount importance in reconstructing the transmission dynamics. Occasionally, I collaborate with other researchers on other diseases related projects, mainly COVID-19.