(above) Image Professor Julia Gog giving a plenary talk at Epidemics 8 2021 conference which tool place at the start of December online

JUNIPER Consortium Newsletter
December 2021

Dear friends and associates of JUNIPER,

Welcome to this months edition of the JUNIPER consortium's newsletter. It's been a busy run up to Christmas for the JUNIPER consortium. As well as continuing to provide projections and scientific advice to support UK government decision making around the rapidly evolving emergence of the omicron variant, JUNIPER members have given a number of talks at both national and international events.

A key highlight of the month was our research meeting which took place over two half days at the start of the month hosted by the Isaac Newton Institute (INI). A year since the JUNIPER consortium officially began, this research meeting highlighted the key COVID-19 related research undertaken by members over this year. Topics included: COVID-19 in education settings, identifying early signatures of novel variants, contact tracing and within-host modelling. The Early Career Researchers within the consortium also showcased the huge breadth of research undertaken through their elevator pitch talks. Finally the two half days ended with a look at what we might expect from COVID-19 in the future with a panel discussion on this topic with the JUNIPER investigators. Talks were recorded and will be available on the INI website in the new year here.

This month the Epidemics- 8th International Conference on Infectious Disease Dynamics also took place. The JUNIPER consortium was lucky enough to have a number of contributions from members including 13 posters, two research talks (by co-investigator Professor Thomas House and postdoc Dr Ed Hill) as well as a plenary lecture from the consortiums co-lead Professor Julia Gog.

Events

MONTHLY SEMINAR SERIES 

Our next monthly seminar at the Isaac Newton Institute will be given by Dr Emily Nixon (University of Bristol) who is a JUNIPER funded postdoc working with Dr Ellen Brooks Pollock. The talk will take place on Mon 24th January 12:00pm-13:00pm (GMT). This talk will be virtual and will be live streamed and recorded. Check out more details on the INI website in the new year here.

WEEKLY SEMINAR SERIES

We have a weekly informal seminar on Wednesdays at 16:00-17:00 GMT followed by a virtual beer hour. If you are interested in attending please sign up here. 

Recent Papers and Articles

Preprint update to look at effects of vaccination & asymptomatic testing uptake in a university setting to include the impact of an omicron-like variant by members at the University of Bristol. Read the updated preprint here.

We are happy to be working with Plus Magazine to bring the work from consortium members to a wider audience. Check out the full list of articles here. Recent highlights include How to work out doubling time and Pandemics and psychology .

For a full list of outputs from the consortium, check out our website here​.

Upcoming events

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures - JUNIPER co-lead Professor Julia Gog will be joining England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam as one of the guest lecturers at this years Royal Institution Christmas lectures. Tune into BBC4 at 8pm on 29th December to find out more about the mathematical modelling behind the pandemic.

The Role of Uncertainty in Mathematical Modelling of Pandemics is a three-day workshop on 8th-10th February 2022 which will focus on uncertainty quantification methods for epidemiology models and forms part of the RAMP continuity work. Find out more including how to register​ here.

Recovery from the Pandemic: Transport Logistics is a three-day virtual study group on 29th to 31st March 2021 which will solve end user defined challenges with the aim of mitigating the impact of COVID-19, climate change and the change of regulations on the shipping and supply chain network and forms part of the RAMP continuity work. Find out more including how to register here. 

Thank you as always for your continued support and interest. We hope you all have a lovely break over Christmas and we look forward to more interactions with you all in 2022. 

- JUNIPER consortium

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Contact: Dr Ciara Dangerfield - ced57@cam.ac.uk (JUNIPER scientific programme manager)

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(above) Sneak peek behind the scenes at this years RI Christmas Lectures, which Professor Julia will be giving a guest lecture on. Make sure to tune into BB4 at 8pm on 29th December