The paper engineers heat-stable variants of Tc24, a Trypanosoma cruzi antigen, enabling serological detection of Chagas disease without refrigeration.

bioRxiv · Aug 23, 2025 · PreprintBiochemistry

A comparative 'omics' approach for prediction of candidate Strongyloides stercoralis diagnostic coproantigens

Tegwen Marlais, Jack Bickford-Smith, Carlos N. Talavera-López, Hai Le, Fatima Chowdhury, Michael A. Miles

The paper identifies candidate diagnostic coproantigens for Strongyloides stercoralis using transcriptomic and proteomic data combined with computational analysis.

bioRxiv · Sep 1, 2022 · PreprintBioinformatics

Repeat-driven generation of antigenic diversity in a major human pathogen, Trypanosoma cruzi

Carlos N. Talavera-López, Louisa Alexandra Messenger, Michael D. Lewis, Matthew Yeo, João Luís Reis-Cunha, Gabriel Machado Matos, Daniella Castanheira Bartholomeu, José E. Calzada, Azäel Saldaña, Juan David Ramírez, Felipe Guhl, Sofía Ocaña-Mayorga, Jaime Alfredo Costales, Rodion V. Gorchakov, Kathryn Marie Jones, , Björn Andersson

The paper presents an improved genome assembly of Trypanosoma cruzi and reveals a unique genomic structure involving subtelomeric regions and retrotransposons contributing to antigenic variation.

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology · Mar 3, 2021Peer-reviewedGenomics

Ecological divergence and hybridization of Neotropical Leishmania parasites

Frederik Van den Broeck, Nicholas Jon Savill, Hideo Imamura, Mandy J Sanders, Ilse Maes, Sinclair Cooper, David Mateus, Marlene Jara, Vanessa Adaui, Jorge Arévalo, Alejandro Llanos‐Cuentas, Lineth García, Elisa Cupolillo, Michael A. Miles, Matthew Berriman, , Jean‐Claude Dujardin

This study examines the evolutionary history and hybridization of Leishmania parasites using whole genome sequencing, revealing ecological divergence and genetic mosaic ancestry in hybrids.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · Sep 21, 2020Peer-reviewedGenomics

Genomic analysis of natural intra-specific hybrids among Ethiopian isolates of Leishmania donovani

James Anthony Cotton, Caroline Durrant, Susanne Ursula Franssen, Tesfaye in Gelanew, Asrat Hailu, David Mateus, Mandy J Sanders, Matthew Berriman, Petr Volf, Michael A. Miles, Matthew Yeo

The paper analyzes whole-genome sequences of Leishmania donovani isolates from Ethiopia to investigate hybridization patterns and recombination in natural populations.

PLoS neglected tropical diseases · Apr 20, 2020Peer-reviewedGenomics

Global genome diversity of the Leishmania donovani complex

Susanne Ursula Franssen, Caroline Durrant, Olivia Stark, Bettina A. Moser, Tim Downing, Hideo Imamura, Jean‐Claude Dujardin, Mandy J Sanders, Isabel Larguinho Maurício, Michael A. Miles, Lionel F. Schnur, Charles L. Jaffe, Abedelmajeed Nasereddin, Henk D. F. H. Schallig, Matthew Yeo, , James Anthony Cotton

The paper presents a comprehensive genome-wide study of Leishmania donovani complex isolates, revealing genetic diversity and structural variation across species and geographical regions.

eLife · Mar 24, 2020Peer-reviewedGenomics

Parallel sexual and parasexual population genomic structure in Trypanosoma cruzi

Philipp Schwabl, Hideo Imamura, Frederik Van den Broeck, Jaime A. Costales, Jalil Maiguashca, Michael A. Miles, Bjorn Andersson, Mario J. Grijalva, Martin S. Llewellyn

This study shows T. cruzi maintains sexual populations alongside clonal parasexual ones, with distinct genomic structures and reproductive modes.

bioRxiv · Jun 4, 2018 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology