Research
Some examples of my research and the impact it has had.
Early-life microbes & vaccine responses
Why do some people respond strongly to vaccines and others don't? Gut Bifidobacteria turn out to be essential for infant responses to the PCV13 pneumococcal vaccine. Antibiotics given in the first days of life deplete them and blunt vaccine responses for up to seven months.
ImpactA world-first probiotic trial now underway in South Australia; Research Highlights in Nature Reviews Microbiology and Nature Reviews Immunology.
Molecular mechanisms of long COVID
Some of the earliest molecular evidence for long COVID: immune gene-expression signatures that persist months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, and trace-level cytokines that impair heart muscle cell function.
ImpactCited in UK NICE clinical guidance; Altmetric score of 872, in the top 1% of research outputs.
Precision medicine for IBD
Multi-omic profiling of more than 850 patients across Ireland and North America, with over 340 biopsies. It showed that the microbiome modulates inflammation through epigenetic mechanisms and that medication drives much of the variation.
ImpactCited in German national IBD guidelines (AWMF); led to a data-licensing collaboration with Second Genome Inc.
The human gut virome
Mapping the viruses of the gut, especially the bacteriophages that prey on our bacteria. The virome is highly personal and stable over time. It changes in disease and is easily distorted by analysis choices.
ImpactMore than 1,700 citations across three Cell Host & Microbe papers that helped define the field.
For every paper, see Publications.