Tom Parks
Academic Foundation Year 2 Doctor
Research Summary
I am an Academic Foundation Year 2 Doctor at Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School with a clinical interest in infectious diseases. With the Hill Group I have studied genetic susceptibility to diverse pathogens including Pneumocystis jiroveci and Mycobacterium leprae.
I am now beginning work to study genetic susceptibility to the diseases of Streptococcus pyogenes (also known as Group A Streptococcus, GAS), particularly rheumatic heart disease, which remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world accounting for 500 000 deaths each year worldwide approximately the same number as breast cancer.
Rheumatic heart disease is an autoimmune disease that follows superficial infection with GAS. The same bacteria, however, may cause life-threatening infections including septicaemia and necrotising faciitis. It is therefore an excellent paradigm of the interaction between infection and autoimmunity and thus an important area for research.
In these studies I am collaborating with, amongst others: Mariana Mirabel at the London Heart Hospital; Eloi Marijon and Xavier Jouven at INSERM in Paris; Andrew Steer at the University of Melbourne; Jonathan Carapetis at the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin; Julian Parkhill and Matthew Holden at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge; and Shiranee Sriskandan at Imperial College London.