Contact information
Tom Parks
Group Leader
- Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow
- Honorary Consultant in Infectious Disease (Imperial College Healthcare)
Alongside my work ongoing work at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, I am now a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Infectious Disease at Imperial College London. I hold a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship.
The main focus of my research is investigating host genetic susceptibility to group A streptococcal disease, especially rheumatic heart disease. My doctoral studies undertaken in Oxford under the supervision of Professor Adrian Hill included a genome-wide association of susceptibility to rheumatic heart disease set in the Pacific. More details, including information about access to data, are available here.
Building on my earlier work on susceptibility to rheumatic heart disease, I am now focussed on understanding how complex genetic regions such as the immunoglobulin gene loci influence acquisition of antibody-mediated immunity to various pathogens including the group A streptococcus. My strategy involves using a combination of array genotyping and short-read sequencing alongside more targeted long-read approaches. In the longer term, I expect to be able to exploit these approaches to assist development of much needed vaccines and therapeutics to combat disease caused by a wide range of infectious agents.
Recent publications
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ACTR1A has pleiotropic effects on risk of leprosy, inflammatory bowel disease and atopy
Preprint
Gilchrist JJ. et al, (2022)
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Incidence of acute rheumatic fever in northern and western Uganda: a prospective, population-based study
Journal article
Okello E. et al, (2021), The Lancet Global Health, 9, e1423 - e1430
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Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks.
Journal article
Ioannidis AG. et al, (2021), Nature, 597, 522 - 526
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Association of Novel Locus With Rheumatic Heart Disease in Black African Individuals
Journal article
Machipisa T. et al, (2021), JAMA Cardiology, 6, 1000 - 1000
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A Novel Framework for Characterizing Genomic Haplotype Diversity in the Human Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Locus
Journal article
Rodriguez OL. et al, (2020), Frontiers in Immunology, 11