Did social distancing really help control the spread of COVID-19? New research by a University of Virginia biologist could shed light on just how important this simple but understudied strategy for avoiding disease might be.
Recently the National Science Foundation awarded assistant professor Amanda Gibson with a $1.5 million CAREER grant to support her research on a similar phenomenon: how organisms evolve to avoid parasites. The five-year grant, one of the NSF’s most prestigious awards for early-career faculty who are rising stars in both the lab and the classroom, will allow Gibson to explore how host populations move and disperse to avoid disease and how that affects their health and evolution. The grant will also play an important role in Gibson’s efforts to help community college transfer students transition more effectively to a four-year degree program.
“In the real world, parasites and pathogens aren’t everywhere — they’re patchily distributed,” Gibson explained. “A host’s best defense might not be fighting off an infection but simply picking up and leaving an area where the risk of infection is high.”
Her research challenges the traditional focus on the immune system as the best way for organisms to defend against disease. Some organisms may instead defend themselves by physically leaving high-risk areas, yet this concept has received little research attention compared to more well-known defense strategies.
Gibson’s work will focus on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic worm that can be reared and studied in the lab. Unlike migratory birds or monarch butterflies, which are difficult to track in the wild, C. elegans is a more practical subject for researchers interested in observing how organisms react to parasites both in the lab and in the wild. Through a combination of experimental tests, field studies and evolutionary analysis, Gibson and her team will examine whether parasites change movement patterns, whether dispersal helps organisms escape infection, and whether organisms that rely on movement for defense require fewer alternative immune defenses.
“If organisms can simply avoid infected areas, does that reduce the value of other costly defense strategies?” Gibson said. “This grant will help us determine whether movement itself is a key part of how host populations evolve to protect against disease.”
Beyond its focus on evolutionary biology, the project highlights a broader lesson about disease management. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that avoiding pathogens — through social distancing and quarantine — was one of the most effective ways to limit infection before medical interventions became available. Gibson sees parallels in her research, noting that avoidance strategies may be just as fundamental in nature as they are in public health.
“We tend to think of the immune system as the primary way to fight infection,” she said. “But during COVID, avoidance — limiting contact with infected individuals — was our most effective tool before vaccines became available. Avoidance strategies are widespread in nature, yet they remain understudied.”
Supporting Community College Transfers in STEM
While advancing scientific understanding is a primary goal of the NSF CAREER award, Gibson’s project also emphasizes education and mentorship, particularly for community college transfer students pursuing science degrees. Many transfer students from Virginia’s community colleges enter UVA’s biology program, but the transition can be challenging. Unlike students who begin at UVA in their first year, transfer students often arrive without strong peer and faculty connections or prior research opportunities, and they must quickly adjust to a new academic environment.
Gibson, an award-winning UVA educator, aims to bridge this gap by integrating transfer students into research early in their academic careers. Through a collaboration with Piedmont Virginia Community College established by UVA biology professor Alan Bergland, she will provide hands-on research opportunities for students before they even arrive on Grounds. Additionally, she plans to offer summer research fellowships for incoming transfer students, giving them paid experience in her lab before their first semester.
To further support these students, Gibson is developing a new course specifically for third-year biology transfer students. The course will introduce them to the department’s research community, support them in engaging with scientific literature, and connect them with faculty mentors and peers. She hopes the initiative will help transfer students build confidence as scientists, develop essential scientific skills and integrate more fully into the academic community.
“We know that transfer students coming into their third year face hurdles,” Gibson said. “They may lack prior relationships with faculty, have fewer research opportunities, and often struggle to integrate into a large department. My goal is to help them succeed by getting them engaged early.”
Receiving the NSF CAREER award marks a significant milestone for Gibson, and she sees it as an affirmation of both her research and her commitment to mentorship.
“This is my first big NSF grant, and it means a lot,” she said. “I’ve always believed in the NSF’s mission of funding basic science, and this award reinforces the importance of integrating research and education. It’s also a recognition of the incredible work students in my lab have done to generate the data behind this project.”