Quadram Institute Bioscience UKRI Innovation Fellowships: BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Accounts
Lead Research Organisation:
Quadram Institute
Department Name: Directorate
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
Reg Wilson (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Adriaenssens EM
(2021)
Phage Diversity in the Human Gut Microbiome: a Taxonomist's Perspective.
in mSystems
Ansorge R
(2021)
Dadaist2: A Toolkit to Automate and Simplify Statistical Analysis and Plotting of Metabarcoding Experiments.
in International journal of molecular sciences
Birolo G
(2020)
covtobed: a simple and fast tool to extract coverage tracks from BAM files
in Journal of Open Source Software
Birolo G
(2022)
BamToCov: an efficient toolkit for sequence coverage calculations.
in Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)
Lopez-Tello J
(2022)
Maternal gut microbiota Bifidobacterium promotes placental morphogenesis, nutrient transport and fetal growth in mice.
in Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS
Mashe T
(2021)
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi H58 clone has been endemic in Zimbabwe from 2012 to 2019.
in The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy
Mashe T
(2021)
Genomic epidemiology and the role of international and regional travel in the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Zimbabwe: a retrospective study of routinely collected surveillance data.
in The Lancet. Global health
Mashe T
(2021)
Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Zimbabwe shows dominance of variants of concern.
in The Lancet. Microbe
Description | Hosting visiting scientist from University of Technology Sydney |
Geographic Reach | Australia |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | Hosted a visiting postdoctoral scientist from the University of Technology Sydney (Australia) for 10 weeks, providing training in bioinformatics and genomics of bacterial pathogens and metagenomes. |
Description | Association of Salmonella with Protists in the aquatic environment |
Amount | $603,545 (USD) |
Funding ID | INV-051974 |
Organisation | Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 11/2022 |
End | 11/2024 |
Description | BBSRC Impact Accelerator Account |
Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/S506679/1 |
Organisation | Quadram Institute Bioscience |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2019 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | Establishment of COVID-19 genome sequencing in Zimbabwe |
Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 43030-000-B |
Organisation | Quadram Institute Bioscience |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2020 |
End | 04/2021 |
Description | Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership |
Amount | £12,757,080 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/T008717/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2020 |
End | 09/2028 |
Description | Research contract |
Amount | £183,890 (GBP) |
Organisation | Glycom A/S |
Sector | Private |
Country | Denmark |
Start | 01/2018 |
End | 07/2019 |
Description | Research contract |
Amount | £33,330 (GBP) |
Organisation | NutriLeads |
Sector | Private |
Country | Netherlands |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 08/2020 |
Description | S. Typhi and protozoa in contaminated water in Zimbabwe |
Amount | $100,000 (USD) |
Funding ID | OPP1217121 |
Organisation | Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 04/2021 |
Description | Sustained Energy Release Starchy Food Products |
Amount | € 659,474 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 20169 |
Organisation | European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Hungary |
Start | 01/2020 |
End | 12/2021 |
Title | Equipment for gut-on-chip |
Description | Gut-on-chip system is run by specialised equipment consisting of two parts: Zoe and Orb. Zoe controls the rate of flow and peristalsis-like stretch for up to 12 chips, providing the environment cells need to live. Orb provides the precise mixture of gas, power, and vacuum stretch required by the Zoë culture module. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Following initial experiments with gut-on-chip and demonstrating exciting results using this dynamic microfluidics system (as opposed to the conventional static methods such as trans wells) we were able to attract funding by an industrial collaborator for a pilot study using this state of the art method. |
URL | https://www.emulatebio.com/products |
Title | Gut-on-chip technology established |
Description | Gut-On-Chip microfluidic culture device recapitulates the microarchitecture and functions of living intestine. Using the organoid approach where intestinal stem cells isolated from human biopsies are processed to form intestinal villi oriented towards the channel lumen, and the epithelium in close apposition to human intestinal microvascular endothelium. This Gut-on-Chip GOC technology using donor-derived human intestinal cells therefore offers advantages over the current organoids and creates new opportunities for personalized medicine including the transport of nutrients, digestion, different intestinal disorders, and intestinal interactions with commensal microbes as well as pathogens. |
Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - in vitro |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Following initial experiments with gut-on-chip and demonstrating exciting results using this dynamic microfluidics system (as opposed to the conventional static methods such as trans wells) we were able to attract funding by an industrial collaborator for a pilot study using this state of the art method. |
URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21201-7 |
Title | Integrated Models of the Human Gut |
Description | The FTMA project undertaken by Suligoj has led to increased use of organ on chip technology at Quadram Institute. This has now been incorporated into a BBSRC-funded 'Integrated Models of the Human Gut' facility at the Institute. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | None yet. |
Description | Collaboration between Juge Group and Emulate Inc |
Organisation | Emulate, Inc. |
Country | United States |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | exchange of expertise |
Collaborator Contribution | Training and exchange of expertise |
Impact | Publication Research contract |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Collaboration between Juge Group and Public Health England |
Organisation | Public Health England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We will be providing expertise on Emulate platform |
Collaborator Contribution | QIB (Juge group) is subcontractor on grant application |
Impact | Grant |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Collaboration between QIB and Public Health England |
Organisation | Public Health England |
Department | Public Health England Porton Down |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Intellectual input, site visit, sample collection, processing and analysis, consumables. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in and provision of NHP model system, training, intellectual input, samples. |
Impact | The collaboration has generated new related projects and expanded to include additional partners at UK universities (UCL, Birmingham,Southampton). The original defined project is ongoing and will continue to grow as more samples become available over the course of 2020. Ultimately we aim to publish our results in high-impact journals and establish the model as a resource for other users. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | UniPD_UniVR |
Organisation | University of Padova |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - Our team introduced the use of NextFlow workflows for reproducible pipelines and how to package software in BioConda to allow for easy installation/distribution; - I delivered a research seminar at the University of Padua and a science dissemination talk for high-school students; - Hosted at UniPD for 10 days to collaborate on metagenomics methods |
Collaborator Contribution | - Prof. Chiara Romualdi organized and delivered a training session on "statistical methods for RNA-Seq analysis" - Prof. Nicola Vitulo organized and delivered a training session on "Interpreting data from metabarcoding experiments" |
Impact | - one-to-one session with Prof. Chiara Romualdi, statistician, resulted in improved statistical methods implemented in our microbiome statistical analysis; - collaborating with Prof. Nicola Vitulo, bioinformatician, we developed a pipeline for virome analysis that will be presented at the RECOMB2020 conference in May 2020. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | UniPD_UniVR |
Organisation | University of Verona |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - Our team introduced the use of NextFlow workflows for reproducible pipelines and how to package software in BioConda to allow for easy installation/distribution; - I delivered a research seminar at the University of Padua and a science dissemination talk for high-school students; - Hosted at UniPD for 10 days to collaborate on metagenomics methods |
Collaborator Contribution | - Prof. Chiara Romualdi organized and delivered a training session on "statistical methods for RNA-Seq analysis" - Prof. Nicola Vitulo organized and delivered a training session on "Interpreting data from metabarcoding experiments" |
Impact | - one-to-one session with Prof. Chiara Romualdi, statistician, resulted in improved statistical methods implemented in our microbiome statistical analysis; - collaborating with Prof. Nicola Vitulo, bioinformatician, we developed a pipeline for virome analysis that will be presented at the RECOMB2020 conference in May 2020. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | UniTO |
Organisation | University of Turin |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - I introduced technical aspects on software engineering to Dr. Giovanni Birolo and Dr. Serena Aneli: Docker containers, packaging and distribution of software using BioConda, unit tests and continuous integration using Circle-CI; - Joint development of a novel tool for analysis of next generation sequencing alignments - Joint development of a novel tool for denoising of OTU table in 16S sequencing experiments |
Collaborator Contribution | - Dr. Serena Aneli delivered a seminar - Dr. Giovanni Birolo worked on a bioinformatics project at the Quadram Institute for one week, coding software (CovToBed and OTUSfocus)- - Dr. Giovanni Birolo delivered training on "Python - Pandas" |
Impact | - A publication describing "covtobed" has been submitted - The software "covtobed" has been released open-source, distributed on BioConda (> 1000 downloads) and Docker Hub. - A manuscript describing the OTU table cleaning tool is under preparation |
Start Year | 2019 |
Title | BamToCov, an efficient toolkit for sequence coverage calculations |
Description | BamToCov is a toolkit for rapid and flexible coverage computation that relies on the most memory efficient algorithm and is designed for integration in pipelines, given its ability to read alignment files from streams. The tools in the suite can process sorted BAM or CRAM files, allowing the user to extract coverage information via different filtering approaches and to save the output in different formats (BED, Wig or counts). The BamToCov algorithm can also handle strand-specific and/or physical coverage analyses. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | A fast and memory-efficient method for the coverage analysis of genomics sequences allows a fast detection of undercovered regions (e.g. Sars-Cov-2 amplicon sequencing, KO genes,...) and counts of reads in regions of interests. |
URL | https://github.com/telatin/BamToCov |
Title | Galru: rapid pathogen typing using CRISPR spacer repertoire |
Description | Galru is a Python 3 program that defines CRISPR spacer repertoire directly from uncorrected metagenomic long reads. Galru first identifies long reads that map to CRISPR-associated genes and searches along the read for the CRISPR spacer array. This array is compared to a database of known arrays to identify the sequence type (MLST). |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | None yet |
URL | https://github.com/quadram-institute-bioscience/galru |
Title | Singularity image of "covtobed" - a tool to convert coverage tracks to BED files |
Description | Covtobed 1.0RC Read one (or more) alignment files (sorted BAM) and prints a BED with the coverage. It will join consecutive bases with the same coverage, and can be used to only print a BED file with the regions having a specific coverage range. https://github.com/telatin/covtobed/ |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The singularity image allows to execute the software in HPC environments avoiding installation of libraries and dependencies. This image has been installed in the Norwich Research Park High Performance Cluster. |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3600261 |
Title | covtobed - a new tool to extract coverage information |
Description | covtobed is a tool to generate BED coverage tracks from BAM files, that reads one (or more) alignment files (sorted BAM) and prints a BED with the coverage. It will join consecutive bases with the same coverage, and can be used to only print a BED file with the regions having a specific coverage range. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The software has been downloaded 1000 times from BioConda |
URL | https://bioconda.github.io/recipes/covtobed/README.html |
Description | Bioinformatics workshop CLIMB 2020 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Training on Linux for bioinformatics with MRC CLIMB BIG DATA. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://github.com/telatin/learn_bash/wiki/CLIMB |
Description | Bioinformatics workshop at the Evergreen Phage Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | 30 postgraduate students and early career researchers attended a workshop on the use of command-line tools in the analysis of virome data, as part of the Evergreen International Phage Biology meeting in Olympia, WA, USA |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Cardiff School of Medicine Science Seminar series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited keynote seminar at the University of Cardiff School of Medicine presentation entitled 'Salmonella Variants of Interest and Concern: carving a Niche in the pork industry'. Dissemination of key findings from a number of project from within my research group to an audience of approximately 50 students, postdoctoral scientists and prinicpal investigators. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Coffee Break Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | About 100 QIB Employees attended the Coffee science meeting to hear a talk on in vitro models of human gut including hte latest developments on gut-on-chop technology. There was lots of interest by my colleagues to learn about it, they were asking about applications, training, feasibility, etc. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/77f38d25-d223-4b59-8a61-73d85c6b77fe |
Description | Darwin Day - Oral presentation for Italian students on the Gut Microbiome |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation (remote) for the National Darwin Day organized by UAAR for High School Students. Live streamed to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/95169492091/videos/3664473390326646) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdQ11CKu7kI) with >1000 attendants and ~3000 view in the first week. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.facebook.com/95169492091/videos/3664473390326646 |
Description | Emulate Visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 15 staff from QI have attended the Emulate visit which took place at QIB with the intention to develop further collaboration and implementation of gut-on-chip tehnology at our Institute on a larger scale. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://intranet.nbi.ac.uk/infoserv/cgi-bin/ResearchOutcomes/view.asp?ID=63775 |
Description | Expert consultation on non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) and broadly protective Salmonella vaccines (NTS, paratyphoid A, typhoid) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | WHO convened this 2-day expert consultation as a forum for stakeholders to review the evidence on the epidemiology and the serovar distribution of invasive and diarrheal NTS disease, and to discuss how the geographic diversity of Salmonella serovars and the potential demand of endemic countries should be considered in the development of broadly protective Salmonella vaccines. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Invited lecture 23rd Biennial Evergreen International Phage Biology Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited lecture on phage taxonomy. The audience reported increased understanding of the importance of phage taxonomy in data analysis and changing behaviours. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Lotus tutorial |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A hands-on session for 20 PhD students and Master Students on how to analyse metabarcoding experiments using Lotus. This allowed to showcase a tool currently developed at the Quadram Institute and to engage in discussions with future researchers interested in microbiome experiments. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://github.com/telatin/lotus-tutorial |
Description | Mapping the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Zimbabwe using genomic epidemiology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Blog of Quadram Institute role in assisting the emergency response of the Zimbabwe Government to the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. The genomic analysis of Zimbabwe's 100 samples showed there were at least 25 separate independent introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the country that were associated with eight global lineages. Ninety-five per cent featured the D614G genotype, a variant linked to increased transmissibility. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
URL | https://quadram.ac.uk/blogs/mapping-the-spread-of-sars-cov-2-in-zimbabwe-using-genomic-epidemiology/ |
Description | On line Blog of work on Typhoid fever in Zimbabwe |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A blog was published on the Quadram Institute website that is accessible free of charge internationally. The blog describes in non-technical language the prpblem that endemic typhoid fever causes in Zimbabwe and the objectives of an award from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to study Salmonella Typhi and its association with protozoa in the the water environment in Zimbabwe. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://quadram.ac.uk/collaboration-tackling-typhoid-fever-in-zimbabwe/ |
Description | Oral presentation at the Norwich Research Park Earth & Life Systems Alliance (ELSA) workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Virtual workshop showcasing research done at the Norwich Research Park to improve knowledge exchange across the park and engage postgraduate students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | PHAVES: Ask Me Anything |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Virtual Debate in the Ask Me Anything format organised by the international non-profit organisation Phage Directory in order to promote phage research and international collaboration across the globe. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Postgraduate Student Knowledge Exchange Trip to University of Parma, Italy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The Knowledge Exchange Trip is a yearly exchange visit with a University or institute in Europe which has a similar research focus to Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB). The purpose of the trip, is for students to present their PhD research projects to a group of students and group leaders from the host institute and then the host institutes students also present their research to the QIB students. The students also receive a tour of the facilities at the host institute. 11 students attended the trip and gained experience presenting their research to an audience that does not necessarily specialise in the same area of research as them. Students gained knowledge of other research areas and also learnt about new techniques that could benefit their own research. It was also an opportunity to promote QIB and the excellent research that goes on within the institute, which may lead to future collaborations between QIB and the University of Parma. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Talk for the the Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies Network |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I gave a talk on how sugars from human milk affect human gut barrier function. This presentation on advanced models of human gut triggered an interesting discussion on how the field of in vitro modelling is advancing and what is being done to also include anaerobic bacteria in to the gut-on-chip models. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.organonachip.org.uk/events/4647/organ-on-a-chip-symposium |
Description | Video for BioRepository |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | I took part in making a video for the BioRepository webpage to explain the importance of research and how collaboration with the biorepository improves the research we can deliver on the park to benefit the wider community. The use of state of the art in vitro gut models (including gut on chip) was metnioned. The videos were recorded back in November and are currently in the process of editing. Once they go live, the activity will reach a lot more people than listed above for this point in time. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Visit to National Microbiology Reference Lab, Zimbabwe |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Two members of the Kingsley group visited Dr Sekesai Zinyowera and her team at the National Microbiology Reference Lab in Harare, Zimbabwe. Project planning, further collaboration and capacity building at NMRL for investigation of food and water-borne bactewrial infections was discussed. We also met with The Douglas Mangwanya, Director of Laboratory Sevices in Zimbabwe and delegates from the City of Harare Authorities involved in water treatment to investigate areas of cooperation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Wellcome/BMGF NTS CHIM Workshop invited speaker |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Nontyphoidal Salmonellae, particularly Salmonella enterica serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis, are a major cause of enterocolitis globally. In sub-Saharan Africa NTS are also responsible for invasive disease known as invasive NTS disease or iNTS disease: bacteraemia and/or meningitis which particularly affect young children and HIV-infected individuals and have high associated case fatality rates (1,2). Effective treatment of iNTS disease is hampered by the lack of a pathognomonic clinical presentation, need for blood culturing to make a diagnosis and increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance. For these reasons, development of a vaccine against iNTS disease could have a major global public health impact. New candidate vaccines against iNTS disease have recently entered or are about to enter first-in-human trials, alone or in combination with licensed typhoid conjugate vaccine, making this workshop particularly timely. A controlled human infection model (CHIM) could have a role in the pathway to vaccine registration for healthy and special populations, Objectives of the Meeting 1. Understand possible roles for an NTS CHIM 2. Gauge utility of an NTS CHIM for vaccine development 3. Discuss different approaches to NTS CHIM development 4. Prime Wellcome's call for Expressions of Interest for NTS CHIM development |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |