Faculty

David Kennedy

Associate Professor of Biology
Huck Co-Hire with Eberly College of Science

W229B Millennium Science Complex
University Park, PA

Email dak30@psu.edu
Phone 814-863-5461

Overview

Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, with particular interest in how disease dynamics influence pathogen emergence, virulence evolution, and drug or vaccine resistance.

Areas of Expertise

Infectious Agent Immunology and Microbiology
Virus Immunology and Microbiology
Infection Immunology and Microbiology
Infectious Disease Immunology and Microbiology
Virus Keyphrases
Virulence Evolution Keyphrases
Marek's Disease Virus Keyphrases
Pathogen Evolution Keyphrases

Developing monoclonal antibody therapies for measles could lead to adverse pathogen evolution
David A. Kennedy, 2026, In: PLoS biology
Date: 2026

Virulence evolution of a salmonid virus following a host jump
Malina M. Loeher, Gael Kurath, David A. Kennedy, Joanne E. Salzer, William N. Batts, Rachel B. Breyta, Andrew R. Wargo, Dec 2025, In: PLoS pathogens
Date: Dec 2025

Heterogeneity in and correlation between host transmissibility and susceptibility can greatly impact epidemic dynamics
Beth M. Tuschhoff, David A. Kennedy, Aug 21 2025, In: Journal of Theoretical Biology
Date: Aug 21 2025

High-fidelity long-read sequencing of an avian herpesvirus reveals extensive intrapopulation diversity in tandem repeat regions
Alejandro Ortigas-Vasquez, Christopher D. Bowen, Daniel W. Renner, Susan J. Baigent, Yaoyao Zhang, Yongxiu Yao, Venugopal Nair, David A. Kennedy, Moriah L. Szpara, Aug 2025, In: PLoS pathogens
Date: Aug 2025

Early epidemiological characteristics explain the chance of population-level virus persistence following spillover events
Clara L. Shaw, David A. Kennedy, Aug 2025, In: PLoS biology
Date: Aug 2025

Exceptions to the rule
Amrita Bhattacharya, Anton Aluquin, David A. Kennedy, Aug 1 2024, In: Evolution Letters
Date: Aug 1 2024

Detecting and quantifying heterogeneity in susceptibility using contact tracing data
Beth M. Tuschhoff, David A. Kennedy, Jul 2024, In: PLoS computational biology
Date: Jul 2024

Death is overrated
David A. Kennedy, 2023, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Date: 2023

Developing an empirical model for spillover and emergence
Clara L. Shaw, David A. Kennedy, Sep 28 2022, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Date: Sep 28 2022

Pathogen evolution during vaccination campaigns
Troy Day, David A. Kennedy, Andrew F. Read, Sylvain Gandon, Sep 2022, In: PLoS biology
Date: Sep 2022

View All Publications →

Imperfect vaccination can enhance the transmission of highly virulent pathogens
Andrew F. Read, Susan J. Baigent, Claire Powers, Lydia B. Kgosana, Luke Blackwell, Lorraine P. Smith, David A. Kennedy, Stephen W. Walkden-Brown, Venugopal K. Nair, 2015, In: PLoS biology
Citations: 349

Why does drug resistance readily evolve but vaccine resistance does not?
David A. Kennedy, Andrew F. Read, Mar 29 2017, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Citations: 130

Potential drivers of virulence evolution in aquaculture
David A. Kennedy, Gael Kurath, Ilana L. Brito, Maureen K. Purcell, Andrew F. Read, James R. Winton, Andrew R. Wargo, Feb 1 2016, In: Evolutionary Applications
Citations: 115

Why the evolution of vaccine resistance is less of a concern than the evolution of drug resistance
David A. Kennedy, Andrew F. Read, Dec 18 2018, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Citations: 103

The evolution of courtship behaviors through the origination of a new gene in Drosophila
Hongzheng Dai, Ying Chen, Sidi Chen, Qiyan Mao, David Kennedy, Patrick Landback, Adam Eyre-Walker, Wei Du, Manyuan Long, May 27 2008, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Citations: 73

Industry-Wide Surveillance of Marek's Disease Virus on Commercial Poultry Farms
David A. Kennedy, Christopher Cairns, Matthew J. Jones, Andrew S. Bell, Rahel M. Salathé, Susan J. Baigent, Venugopal K. Nair, Patricia A. Dunn, Andrew F. Read, Jun 2017, In: Avian diseases
Citations: 53

Monitor for COVID-19 vaccine resistance evolution during clinical trials
David A. Kennedy, Andrew F. Read, David A. Kennedy, Nov 9 2020, In: PLoS biology
Citations: 43

Diversity and relationships of bradyrhizobia from legumes native to eastern North America
Matthew A. Parker, David A. Kennedy, Dec 2006, In: Canadian Journal of Microbiology
Citations: 40

What the reproductive number R<sub>0</sub> can and cannot tell us about COVID-19 dynamics
Clara L. Shaw, David A. Kennedy, Feb 2021, In: Theoretical Population Biology
Citations: 34

Pathogen evolution during vaccination campaigns
Troy Day, David A. Kennedy, Andrew F. Read, Sylvain Gandon, Sep 2022, In: PLoS biology
Citations: 33

View All Publications →

Centers & Institutes

Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics

August 07, 2025

Key Traits Identified in Predicting Disease Emergence in New Populations

o study the outcomes of virus spillover, researchers placed small amounts of a virus onto petri-dish plates harboring populations of different Caenorhabditis species to see if the virus could replicate. Credit: David Kennedy, Penn Statet. All Rights Reserved.

September 30, 2022

Disease outcomes differ by new host species in virus spillover experiments

November 29, 2021

Vaccine Makers Already Testing Their Shots Against Omicron Variant

November 26, 2021

Will Covid variant omicron need a new vaccine? Time and data will tell

Credit: Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

November 16, 2021

New tool weighs costs and benefits of managing evolution of pathogens and pests

April 28, 2021

Are the vaccines effective against mutant Covid variants?

March 17, 2021

How Much Should We Really Worry About the Coronavirus Variants?

January 15, 2021

How devastating could Brazil's 'super-covid' be? Study finds coronavirus overwhelmed the country, killing nearly 40% of hospitalized patients as fears grow its variant could ALREADY be in America

December 22, 2020

Why it matters that the coronavirus is changing — and what this means for vaccine effectiveness (Philadelphia Inquirer)