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Prof. Sunetra Gupta

Sunday, October 27, 2024
Prof. Sunetra Gupta
Sunetra Gupta is Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford with an interest in infectious disease agents that are responsible for malaria, HIV, influenza and bacterial meningitis. She has been awarded the Scientific Medal by the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her scientific research. Gupta has consolidated a body of theoretical work on the evolution of pathogen population structure which establishes a novel pipeline for developing a universal influenza vaccine; this presents a rare example of where a mathematical model of the evolutionary dynamics of an infectious disease has led to the experimental identification of a novel vaccine target.  In tandem with her studies of pathogen diversity, Gupta has made fundamental contributions to the evolution of diversity in host genes that protect against infectious disease. Sunetra Gupta is also a novelist and translator. Her novels have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Southern Arts Literature Prize, shortlisted for the Crossword Award, and longlisted for the Orange Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature