Kwiatkowski Group
Research Overview
We aim to inform public health policy by tracking the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance, and to accelerate vaccine development by discovering natural mechanisms of protective immunity against malaria.
Although we work mainly on malaria, the methods and tools that we are developing also have applications for other infectious diseases.
We receive core funding from the Medical Research Council to support the Centre for Genomics and Global Health, a joint research programme with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge. We also receive funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
A large part of our work is to provide support for data-sharing networks that enable clinicians and researchers around the world to collaborate effectively on large-scale research projects. We coordinate the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN) and the informatics component of the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN). We develop web databases and tools for data analysis, and we provide expertise and training in critical areas such as statistics and ethics.
Genomic epidemiology brings together many different scientific disciplines and our team comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from clinical research and ethics to mathematics and software engineering.
Publications
Manske HM, Kwiatkowski DP. SNP-o-matic. Bioinformatics, in press
Teo YY, Fry AE, Bhattacharya K, Small KS, Kwiatkowski DP, Clark TG. Genome-wide comparisons of variation in linkage disequilibrium. Genome Research, in press
Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network. A global network for investigating the genomic epidemiology of malaria. Nature 2008 Dec 11; 456 (7223): 732-7. PMID: 19079050.
Jallow M, Teo YY, Small KS, Rockett KA, Deloukas P, Clark TG, Kivinen K, Bojang KA, Conway DJ, Pinder M, Sirugo G, Sisay-Joof F, Usen S, Auburn S, Bumpstead SJ, Campino S, Coffey A, Dunham A, Fry AE, Green A, Gwilliam R, Hunt SE, Inouye M, Jeffreys AE, Mendy A, Palotie A, Potter S, Ragoussis J, Rogers J, Rowlands K, Somaskantharajah E, Whittaker P, Widden C, Donnelly P, Howie B, Marchini J, Morris A, Sanjoaquin M, Achidi EA, Agbenyega T, Allen A, Amodu O, Corran P, Djimde A, Dolo A, Doumbo OK, Drakeley C, Dunstan S, Evans J, Farrar J, Fernando D, Hien TT, Horstmann RD, Ibrahim M, Karunaweera N, Kokwaro G, Koram KA, Lemnge M, Makani J, Marsh K, Michon P, Modiano D, Molyneux ME, Mueller I, Parker M, Peshu N, Plowe CV, Puijalon O, Reeder J, Reyburn H, Riley EM, Sakuntabhai A, Singhasivanon P, Sirima S, Tall A, Taylor TE, Thera M, Troye-Blomberg M, Williams TN, Wilson M, Kwiatkowski DP; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium; Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network. 2009. Genome-wide and fine-resolution association analysis of malaria in West Africa. Nat Genet. May 24. PMID: 19465909
Campino S, Forton J, Auburn S, Fry A, Diakite M, Richardson A, Hull J, Jallow M, Sisey-Joof F, Pinder M, Molyneux ME, Taylor TE, Rockett K, Clark TG, Kwiatkowski DP. 2009 TLR9 polymorphisms in African populations: no association with severe malaria, but evidence of cis-variants acting on gene expression. Malar J. Mar 13;8(1):44 PMID: 19284650
Funding Sources
The Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Medical Research Council (UK), Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, European Commission
Keywords
Genomics and Global Health, Ethics, Malaria, Network, Genomic Epidemiology
Research Area
Genomic epidemiology