Andrew Rambaut

Last updated

Andrew Rambaut
Alma mater University of Edinburgh (BSc)
University of Oxford (DPhil)
Awards Royal Society University Research Fellowship
Scientific career
Fields Molecular evolution
Virology
Molecular epidemiology
Computational biology [1]
Institutions University of Edinburgh
Thesis The inference of evolutionary and population dynamic processes from molecular phylogenies  (1997)
Doctoral advisor Paul H. Harvey [2]
Website tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/people/arambaut/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Andrew Rambaut FRS FRSE is a British evolutionary biologist, as of 2020 professor of molecular evolution at the University of Edinburgh. [1] [3]

Contents

Education

Rambaut earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh in 1993 followed by a DPhil in Zoology from the University of Oxford in 1997 supervised by Paul H. Harvey. [2] [4] [5]

Career and research

He was based at Oxford until 2006, when he took up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship position and became Chair of Molecular Evolution at Edinburgh in 2010. [6]

Rambaut's research is primarily on the "evolutionary and epidemiological study of viral pathogens of humans and animals". [6]

In 2007, he published a paper with Alexei Drummond describing BEAST (Bayesian evolutionary analysis sampling trees), a software package for evolutionary analysis by molecular sequence variation, which uses Bayesian inference techniques. [7] [8] This is freely available on GitHub. [9] A year later, Rambaut set up Virological.org, an online "discussion forum for molecular evolution and epidemiology of viruses". [10]

Rambaut has used genome sequencing to track the spread of monkeypox. His research suggests that cases outside Africa are all related and that the virus responsible may have been circulating in people since 2017. [11]

COVID-19

Science reported on 11 January 2020 that Rambaut was the first to publish the genome of the COVID-19 coronavirus after it was sent to him by Edward C.   Holmes. [12] [13] Holmes has said that it "took 52 minutes from receiving the code [from his Chinese colleague Professor Yong-Zhen Zhang] to publishing" on Virological. [14] [15] The BBC Horizon episode The Vaccine stated: "When Chinese scientists published the genetic sequence of a mystery new virus on January 10th 2020, vaccine scientists around the world immediately sprang into action." [16]

Rambaut was one of the authors of the scientific paper The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, [17] which concluded that "SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus". The paper led to scientific and political allegations in 2023, when Republican politicians in the US made accusations that the paper was a cover-up to eliminate the lab leak theory. The paper and the controversy became known as the Proximal Origin. [18] [19]

Awards and honours

Rambaut was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2022, [20] having been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) since 2014.

Rambaut is an attendee of the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronavirus</span> Subfamily of viruses in the family Coronaviridae

Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the common cold, while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS and COVID-19. In cows and pigs they cause diarrhea, while in mice they cause hepatitis and encephalomyelitis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SARS-related coronavirus</span> Species of coronavirus causing SARS and COVID-19

Betacoronavirus pandemicum is a species of virus consisting of many known strains. Two strains of the virus have caused outbreaks of severe respiratory diseases in humans: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1, the cause of the 2002–2004 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of the pandemic of COVID-19. There are hundreds of other strains of SARSr-CoV, which are only known to infect non-human mammal species: bats are a major reservoir of many strains of SARSr-CoV; several strains have been identified in Himalayan palm civets, which were likely ancestors of SARS-CoV-1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SARS-CoV-1</span> Virus that causes SARS

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1), previously known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illness responsible for the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. It is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that infects the epithelial cells within the lungs. The virus enters the host cell by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. It infects humans, bats, and palm civets. The SARS-CoV-1 outbreak was largely brought under control by simple public health measures. Testing people with symptoms, isolating and quarantining suspected cases, and restricting travel all had an effect. SARS-CoV-1 was most transmissible when patients were sick, so its spread could be effectively suppressed by isolating patients with symptoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GISAID</span> Global initiative for sharing virus data

GISAID, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, previously the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data, is a global science initiative established in 2008 to provide access to genomic data of influenza viruses. The database was expanded to include the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other pathogens. The database has been described as "the world's largest repository of COVID-19 sequences". GISAID facilitates genomic epidemiology and real-time surveillance to monitor the emergence of new COVID-19 viral strains across the planet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Ian Lipkin</span> Professor, microbiologist, epidemiologist

Walter Ian Lipkin is the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and a professor of Neurology and Pathology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He is also director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, an academic laboratory for microbe hunting in acute and chronic diseases. Lipkin is internationally recognized for his work with West Nile virus, SARS and COVID-19.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MERS-related coronavirus</span> Species of virus

Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), or EMC/2012 (HCoV-EMC/2012), is the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). It is a species of coronavirus which infects humans, bats, and camels. The infecting virus is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus which enters its host cell by binding to the DPP4 receptor. The species is a member of the genus Betacoronavirus and subgenus Merbecovirus.

Cross-species transmission (CST), also called interspecies transmission, host jump, or spillover, is the transmission of an infectious pathogen, such as a virus, between hosts belonging to different species. Once introduced into an individual of a new host species, the pathogen may cause disease for the new host and/or acquire the ability to infect other individuals of the same species, allowing it to spread through the new host population. The phenomenon is most commonly studied in virology, but cross-species transmission may also occur with bacterial pathogens or other types of microorganisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward C. Holmes</span> British biologist (born 1965)

Edward Charles Holmes is a British evolutionary biologist and virologist. Since 2012, he has been a fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia and professor at the University of Sydney. He was an honorary visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, from 2019-2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bette Korber</span> American computational biologist

Bette Korber is an American computational biologist focusing on the molecular biology and population genetics of the HIV virus that causes infection and eventually AIDS. She has contributed heavily to efforts to obtain an effective HIV vaccine. She created a database at Los Alamos National Laboratory that has enabled her to design novel mosaic HIV vaccines, one of which is currently in human testing in Africa. The database contains thousands of HIV genome sequences and related data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SARS-CoV-2</span> Virus that causes COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the provisional name 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and has also been called human coronavirus 2019. First identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, the World Health Organization designated the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern from January 30, 2020, to May 5, 2023. SARS‑CoV‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wuhan Institute of Virology</span> Research Institute in Wuhan, Hubei, China

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences is a research institute on virology administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which reports to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The institute is one of nine independent organisations in the Wuhan Branch of the CAS. Located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei, it was founded in 1956 and opened mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in 2018. The institute has collaborated with the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France, and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada. The institute has been an active premier research center for the study of coronaviruses.

Bat coronavirus RaTG13 is a SARS-like betacoronavirus identified in the droppings of the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis. It was discovered in 2013 in bat droppings from a mining cave near the town of Tongguan in Mojiang county in Yunnan, China. In February 2020, it was identified as the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, sharing 96.1% nucleotide identity. However, in 2022, scientists found three closer matches in bats found 530 km south, in Feuang, Laos, designated as BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhang Yongzhen</span> Chinese virologist

Zhang Yongzhen, also known as Yong-Zhen Zhang, is a Chinese virologist known for his work relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. A professor at Fudan University, Zhang has discovered numerous RNA viruses and created a network of labs dedicated to monitoring new viruses. He led the team that sequenced and published the genome of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in early January 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origin of COVID-19</span> Inquiries into the origins of SARS-CoV-2

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been efforts by scientists, governments, and others to determine the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Similar to other outbreaks, the virus was derived from a bat-borne virus and most likely was transmitted to humans via another animal in nature, or during wildlife trade such as that in food markets. While other explanations, such as speculations that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a laboratory have been proposed, such explanations are not supported by evidence. Conspiracy theories about the virus's origin have also proliferated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages</span> SARS-CoV-2 lineage nomenclature

The Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (PANGOLIN) is a software tool developed by Dr. Áine O'Toole and members of the Andrew Rambaut laboratory, with an associated web application developed by the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance in South Cambridgeshire. Its purpose is to implement a dynamic nomenclature to classify genetic lineages for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A user with a full genome sequence of a sample of SARS-CoV-2 can use the tool to submit that sequence, which is then compared with other genome sequences, and assigned the most likely lineage. Single or multiple runs are possible, and the tool can return further information regarding the known history of the assigned lineage. Additionally, it interfaces with Microreact, to show a time sequence of the location of reports of sequenced samples of the same lineage. This latter feature draws on publicly available genomes obtained from the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium and from those submitted to GISAID. It is named after the pangolin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 lab leak theory</span> Proposed theory on the origins of COVID-19

The COVID-19 lab leak theory, or lab leak hypothesis, is the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, came from a laboratory. This claim is highly controversial; most scientists believe the virus spilled into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history. Available evidence suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was originally harbored by bats, and spread to humans from infected wild animals, functioning as an intermediate host, at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. Several candidate animal species have been identified as potential intermediate hosts. There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 existed in any laboratory prior to the pandemic, or that any suspicious biosecurity incidents happened in any laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronavirus spike protein</span> Glycoprotein spike on a viral capsid or viral envelope

Spike (S) glycoprotein is the largest of the four major structural proteins found in coronaviruses. The spike protein assembles into trimers that form large structures, called spikes or peplomers, that project from the surface of the virion. The distinctive appearance of these spikes when visualized using negative stain transmission electron microscopy, "recalling the solar corona", gives the virus family its main name.

Virological.org is a discussion forum for the pre-publication sharing and discussion of pathogenic virus sequence data. The forum was launched in November 2014 by Andrew Rambaut. Scientists have often used the forum to publicly share the first available outbreak sequences, e.g. during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the 2022–2023 mpox outbreak, and the Ebola virus epidemic in Guinea.

The Proximal Origin is a reference to a scientific correspondence titled "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2" and the events of scientific and political controversies arising from it. The letter, published in the journal Nature Medicine on 17 March 2020, was written by a group of virologists including Kristian G. Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, W. Ian Lipkin, Edward C. Holmes and Robert F. Garry. The authors examined possibilities of an accidental leak of a natural or manipulated virus from a laboratory, and concluded that genomic analyses indicated that "SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoonotic origins of COVID-19</span> Theories on how COVID-19 originated in animals

SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, was first introduced to humans through zoonosis, and a zoonotic spillover event is the origin of COVID-19 that is considered most plausible by the scientific community. Human coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2 are zoonotic diseases that are often acquired through spillover infection from animals.

References

  1. 1 2 Andrew Rambaut publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. 1 2 "Paul Harvey: Evolution tree". academictree.org.
  3. Andrew Rambaut publications from Europe PubMed Central
  4. "Andrew Rambaut". ed.ac.uk.
  5. Rambaut, Andrew (1997). The inference of evolutionary and population dynamic processes from molecular phylogenies. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC   556744675. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.339299.
  6. 1 2 "Professor Andrew Rambaut FRSE". Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  7. Alexei J. Drummond; Andrew Rambaut (8 November 2007). "BEAST: Bayesian evolutionary analysis by sampling trees". BMC Ecology and Evolution . 7 (1): 214. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-7-214 . ISSN   1471-2148. PMC   2247476 . PMID   17996036. Wikidata   Q27860723.
  8. "BEAST: Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis Sampling Trees". BEAST Software. 13 October 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  9. "beast-dev/beast-mcmc". GitHub. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  10. Virological.org on the Wayback Machine, 2 April 2016
  11. Le Page, Michael (6 June 2022). "Monkeypox DNA hints virus has been spreading in people for years". New Scientist. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  12. "Novel 2019 coronavirus genome". Virological. 11 January 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  13. Cohen, Jon (2020). "Chinese researchers reveal draft genome of virus implicated in Wuhan pneumonia outbreak". Science.
  14. Aubusson, Kate (26 October 2020). "Virus rebel Professor Edward Holmes named NSW Scientist of the Year". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  15. Quammen, David (24 August 2020). "Did Pangolin Trafficking Cause the Coronavirus Pandemic?". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  16. "BBC Two - Horizon, 2021, Horizon Special: The Vaccine, The race for a vaccine begins…". BBC. 10 June 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  17. Kristian G Andersen; Andrew Rambaut; W Ian Lipkin; Edward C. Holmes; Robert F Garry (1 April 2020). "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2". Nature Medicine . 26 (4): 450–452. doi:10.1038/S41591-020-0820-9. ISSN   1078-8956. PMC   7095063 . PMID   32284615. Wikidata   Q87830056.
  18. Stolberg, Sheryl Gay; Mueller, Benjamin (11 July 2023). "Scientists, Under Fire From Republicans, Defend Fauci and Covid Origins Study". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  19. Jon, Cohen (11 July 2023). "Politicians, scientists spar over alleged NIH cover-up using COVID-19 origin paper". Science. doi:10.1126/science.adj7036.
  20. Anon (2022). "Professor Andrew Rambaut FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society.
  21. Sample, Ian (24 April 2020). "Who's who on secret scientific group advising UK government?". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2020.