Dr Gavin Smith is the Programme Director (Interim) and Professor in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore.

Prof Smith’s research integrates ideas from a number of scientific fields, including evolutionary genetics, virology, ecology, and infectious disease epidemiology. He conducts human and animal disease surveillance, virus isolation and characterisation (genetic and phenotypic), then conducts large-scale analyses to generate hypotheses that are tested in the laboratory using tissue culture and animal models.

Prof Smith is primarily interested in the roles played by mutation, natural selection, recombination/reassortment and host immune response on virus diversity within an individual, during transmission within a population and during inter-species transmission between hosts. While Prof Smith works mostly on influenza, he also studies a wide range of respiratory and enteric viruses. His research programme is directed at efforts to better understand viral disease ecosystems in Asia, specifically the animal-human interface, to inform and enhance disease control.

In the context of COVID-19, Prof Smith has been engaged in research on genetic changes in the SARS-COV-2 virus and their potential implications for the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.