Genomic data to understand the biology of neglected bacterial diseases
Genomic data to understand the biology of neglected bacterial diseases
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Bacterial infections still cause an estimated 7.7 million deaths each year, despite global efforts to develop vaccines, antibiotics, and innovative treatments such as phage therapy. This is partly because bacteria are a moving target: when their survival is threatened, they evolve.
For under-researched infectious diseases, such as enteric infections and neglected tropical diseases, we often do not know enough about their biology to anticipate how they will evolve and spread, or what makes a particular person susceptible to disease.
Our mission is to use data-driven approaches, such as genomics and systems immunology, to explore these infections without needing preconceived hypotheses.
Highlighted publications
Longitudinal changes in tear cytokines and antimicrobial proteins in trachomatous disease PLoS NTDs
Early transcriptional responses to human enteric fever challenge
Infection and Immunity
A systems serology approach to the investigation of infection-induced antibody responses and protection in trachoma
Frontiers in Immunology
Genomic, clinical and immunity data join forces for public health, Nature Microbiology Reviews
Genetic Susceptibility to Enteric Fever in Experimentally Challenged Human Volunteers Infection and Immunity
Host restriction, pathogenesis and chronic carriage of typhoidal Salmonella
FEMS Microbiology Reviews
Full publication list here
In the news
One of cholera’s great enemies is found in the human gut
Sanger Institute News
Amber Barton on mass drug administration to eradicate yaws in Papua New Guinea
The Lancet Microbe In Conversation with
Genomics uncovers new ways to target chronic childhood disease
Sanger Institute News
About me
I first became interested in infectious disease and immunology as a Biochemistry undergraduate, carrying out small research projects at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, and the Oxford Antiviral Drug Discovery Unit. This led me to a DPhil in Paediatrics with the Oxford Vaccine Group, using genomics and transcriptomics to understand immunity to enteric fever.
I then worked as a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, applying machine learning to immune data to understand the pathogenesis of trachoma. As a Sanger Epidemiological and Evolutionary Dynamics Fellow, I then moved more towards bacterial genomics and metagenomics. Here I became particularly interested in the role phages play in evolution and severity of enteric infections. After several years of "dry lab", I then got back into the wet lab as a visiting researcher at Imperial College, and am now excited to start this autumn at Warwick!
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