Prof. Feng's research featured in annual report

04-07-2017

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships (EVPRP) featured the mathematical epidemiology work of Prof. Zhilan Feng and her co-researchers in Sweden and the Center for Disease Control on the rates of infection of pertussis, also known as whooping cough in this year's annual report.

The EVPRP works closely with faculty to enhance Purdue’s success in attracting federal funding and serves as the key point of contact for connecting Purdue to the rest of the world, fostering and coordinating university-level partnership initiatives and programs.

In "Unraveling the Math of Disease Immunity", the report explores the cause and impact of Prof. Feng's research into pertussis epidemiology.

Feng and her collaborators devised a way to calculate rates of infection by age, accounting for maternal antibodies that were passively acquired. Their results showed that children, adolescents and young adults had higher infection rates than older people. 

“I believe that our results are very important in terms of understanding this disease,” Feng says. “And that this kind of work can provide useful information for policy makers in identifying critical groups for vaccination.”