Host-Pathogen Kinetics of Viral and Bacterial Infections and Coinfections
● Model-Driven Experimentation ● Data-Driven Modeling ●
● Infection Dynamics ● Integrative Analysis ●
● Mathematical Virology, Bacteriology, and Immunology ●
We study host-pathogen interactions using an integrated approach that combines data-driven mathematical models and model-driven experiments. We specialize in developing and calibrating mathematical models of viral, bacterial, and host immune kinetics using high-quality, quantitative data. We then design and carry out experiments to test our analytical predictions. We use this method to understand the complex pathogen and immune dynamics during viral infections, bacterial infections, and multi-pathogen coinfections.
Dr. Amber Smith, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute for the Study of Host-Pathogen Systems at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Recent Publications
Bruce N, Weaver JAA, Jeynes-Smith C, Beigmohammadi F, Hegarty-Cremer S, Smith AP, Craig M, Smith AM*. Multivariate Host-Pathogen Interactions Driving Heterogeneous Viral Shedding and CD8+ T cell Control of Influenza Virus Infection. (submitted) Preprint: 10.1101/2025.10.24.25338576
Beigmohammadi F, Weaver JJA, Hegarty-Cremer S, Jeynes-Smith C, Smith AM, Craig M*. (2025) Trajectory-matching ABC-MCMC for simulating heterogeneous dynamics in mechanistic models. (submitted) Preprint: 10.1101/2025.09.26.678800
Schughart K*, Threlkeld SC, Sellers S, Fischer WA, Schreiber J, Lücke E, Heise M, Smith AM. (2025) Analysis of blood proteome in influenza-infected patients reveals new insights into the host response and novel signatures distinguishing mild and severe infections. Frontiers in Immunology (in press)
Chen J, Yu Y, O’Brien SF, Charlton CL, Drews SJ, Heffernan JM, Smith AM, Nakagama Y, Kido Y, Buckeridge DL, Russell WA. (2025) The impact of statistical adjustment for assay performance on inferences from SARS-CoV-2 serological surveillance studies. American Journal of Epidemiology Jul 22:kwaf157. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwaf157.
Gazeau S, Deng X, Brunet-Ratnasignham E, Kaufmann DE, Larochelle C, Morel PA, Heffernan JM, Davis CL, Smith AM, Jenner AL, Craig M. (2025) Using virtual patient cohorts to uncover immune response differences in cancer and immunosuppressed COVID-19 patients. PLOS Computational Biology 21(6): e1013170. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013170
Ramirez-Zuniga I, MacLeod WB, Chikoti C, Kwenda G, Lapidot R, Gill CJ*, Smith AM*. (2025) Sequential RSV and bacterial infections in the nasopharynx of Zambian infants and mothers. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004779
Smith AM*. Decoding immune kinetics: unveiling secrets using custom-built mathematical models. Nature Methods (2024). doi: 10.1038/s41592-024-02265-y.
Schughart K*, Smith AM, Tsalik EL, Threlkeld SC, Sellers S, Fischer WA, Schreiber J, Lücke E, Cornberg M, Debarry J, Woods CW, Mcclain MT, Heise M (2024). Host response to influenza infections in human blood: Association of influenza severity with host genetics and transcriptomic response . Frontiers in Immunology 15:1385362. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1385362.
Laboratory of Amber Smith 