Kylie Ainslie ’11: Researching effects of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the focus of research work for Kylie Ainslie ’11.

Ainslie is a research associate in influenza dynamics at Imperial College London. Imperial and her department, the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, are internationally recognized for epidemiological analysis and infectious disease modeling, Ainslie says.

In early March, her focus switched from studying influenza to being a part of the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team. She has been working from home since then and that likely will continue through the end of 2020. But she says this has not negatively affected her productivity since all of her work can be done as long as she has an internet connection.

Ainslie graduated from Ripon College with a double major in biology and mathematics and a minor in chemistry. She received her Ph.D. in biostatistics from Emory University. While at Ripon, she studied abroad for a semester in Budapest, Hungary, and this inspired her to move abroad after graduating.

Her interest in modeling influenza led her to apply for the position at Imperial College London and she started there in 2018. “Normally, I work on modeling the dynamics of influenza and the impact of influenza vaccines,” Ainslie says. “My work involves a combination of biology (understanding the natural history of the diseases I model), mathematics (determining the probability of events occurring that influence disease spread), and computer programming (I model disease spread using computer simulations).”

Shortly after the COVID-19 epidemic began in China, Ainslie’s department created the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team to monitor and model the epidemic. The projects she works on now have included “modeling the spread of COVID-19, which led to a widely-read report that helped shape U.S. and U.K. policy toward the coronavirus pandemic,” she says. Her work also focusess on “characterizing how human mobility patterns impact transmission, and determining the prevalence (a measure of the frequency of a disease in a population at a particular point in time) of COVID-19 in the U.K. population,” Ainslie says.

This pandemic also has had a significant impact on Ainslie’s life outside of work because restrictions have prevented her from being able to leave London. She does not have a car and travel by public transportation is recommended only for essential travel. The hardest part for her is that she has been unable to return home to Atlanta to see her parents because of the pandemic. Her father is Bill Ainslie ’79.

She says she still would be able to do her work if she returned to the U.S., but she then would be without health insurance during a global pandemic because of the lack of socialized medicine in the States.

She has used her extra time at home to experiment with different kinds of foods, do more exploring with her cooking and make foods completely from scratch, like a pizza with homemade dough and sauce. This culinary experience has been documented on her Instagram (@goinginforthekale). She shares her recipes with friends and family whom she has not been able to see in person, and she has reconnected with friends she lost touch with since everyone is stuck at home.

Information about Ainslie’s work and work similar to hers can be found on her Twitter @DrKAinslie.

JILLIAN HEIDENREICH ’22 MONROE, WISCONSIN