Laura Bergner

Dr. Laura Bergner is a Research Fellow in Infectious Disease Ecology at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on the ecology and evolution of wildlife pathogens, particularly in vampire bats, using molecular and genomic tools to study viral diversity, zoonotic potential, and the impacts of human activities on disease dynamics. She collaborates with Daniel Streicker, Christina Faust, and Roman Biek on projects involving target enrichment sequencing and epigenetic aging in bats.

Her work integrates field studies with metagenomics and bioinformatics to address questions such as age-viral interaction in wild animals and optimizing predictive models for viral discovery. Notable contributions include studies on alphacoronavirus in vampire bats, transmissible vaccines for wildlife diseases, and the zoonotic potential of viral pathogens. She has received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for advancing wildlife viral community ecology through metagenomics.

Bergner’s research spans over 23 publications, emphasizing viral transmission dynamics, host-pathogen interactions, and conservation genetics. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges ecology, virology, and genomics to inform disease management strategies and biodiversity conservation.