Tanaka Lab

Left to right: Pen, Sara, Carmen, Zach ... & Mark

We use mathematical, computational and statistical methods to understand biological systems. We have a wide range of interests across evolutionary biology, infectious diseases, statistical inference and cultural evolution. Some topics we have been interested in recently include the following. 1) Evolutionary dynamics of viruses and bacteria. 2) Using approximate Bayesian computation and other methods to analyse molecular data collected from epidemiological studies. We have developed spolTools, a website for analysing and visualising Mycobacterium tuberculosis spoligotypes. 3) Cultural transmission of behavioural traits that influence health and disease. Our research has been supported by the Australian Research Council.

• Research on drug resistant tuberculosis from our group (by Fabio Luciani and Mark Tanaka) and collaborators Scott Sisson, Andrew Francis and Honglin Jiang, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has been covered by ABC News, ABC Radio PM, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times and several other media outlets.

• The New Scientist and ABC Science report on Mark Tanaka's collaborative work with Kevin Laland and Jeremy Kendal from the UK on the spread of traditional medicines.

• Kerensa McElroy is spending some time working at Cosmos Magazine. Here is some fascinating news from Kerensa.

• Congratulations to Carmen Chan for being awarded the University Medal!