The paper identifies invasion-associated genetic variants in pneumococcal lineages by separating serotype and lineage effects, highlighting candidate determinants for experimental investigation.

bioRxiv · Oct 28, 2026 · PreprintMicrobiology

African-specific genetic loci determine iron status and risk of severe malaria and bacteremia in African children

John M. Muriuki, Alexander J. Mentzer, Gavin Band, Amanda Yoon-Yee Chong, Alex Macharia, Reagan M. Mogire, Kelvin M. Abuga, Ruth E. Mitchell, James J. Gilchrist, Emily L. Webb, Francis Maina Ndungu, Laura M. Raffield, Lynette Ekunwe, Amy R. Bentley, Sodiomon Bienvenu Sirima, , Sarah Helen Atkinson

The paper identifies African-specific genetic loci associated with iron status and risk of severe malaria and bacteremia in children, highlighting limited transferability of European polygenic risk scores.

Nature Communications · Apr 7, 2026Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

OSBPL11 is an African-specific locus associated with 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and cardiometabolic health

Reagan M. Mogire, John M. Muriuki, Ruth Fiona Bayimenye, Alexander J. Mentzer, Amanda Chong, Mateus Henrique Gouveia, Amy R. Bentley, Gavin Band, Pauline King’ori, Ruth E. Mitchell, Emily L. Webb, Dhriti Sengupta, Lynette Ekunwe, Francis Maina Ndungu, Alireza Morovat, , Sarah Helen Atkinson

The paper identifies a novel genetic locus OSBPL11 associated with vitamin D levels and cardiometabolic health in African populations through genome-wide analysis.

medRxiv · May 27, 2025 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Targeting hepatitis B vaccine escape using immunogenetics in Bangladeshi infants

Guillaume Butler‐Laporte, Kathryn Auckland, Zannatun Noor, Mamun Kabir, Masud Alam, Tommy Carstensen, Genevieve L. Wojcik, Amanda Yoon-Yee Chong, Cristina Pomilla, Janelle Annette Noble, Shana L. McDevitt, Gaby P. Smits, Susan Wareing, Fiona R.M. van der Klis, Katie JM Jeffery, , Alexander J. Mentzer

The paper identifies HLA variants associated with HBV vaccine response in Bangladeshi infants and links them to vaccine escape mechanisms.

medRxiv · Jun 26, 2023 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

The role of interspecies recombinations in the evolution of antibiotic resistant pneumococci

Joshua C D'Aeth, Mark PG van der Linden, Lesley McGee, Herminia de LENCASTRE, Paul Turner, Jae-Hoon Song, Stephanie W. Lo, Rebecca A. Gladstone, Raquel Sá‐Leão, Kwan Soo Ko, William Paul Hanage, Robert F. Breiman, Bernard Beall, Stephen D. Bentley, Nicholas J. Croucher, , David William Cleary

The paper reconstructs the evolutionary histories of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcal lineages PMEN3 and PMEN9, showing how interspecies recombination contributes to antibiotic resistance and serotype switching.

eLife · Jul 14, 2021Peer-reviewedGenomics

Joint sequencing of human and pathogen genomes reveals the genetics of pneumococcal meningitis

John A. Lees, Bart Ferwerda, Philip H. C. Kremer, Nicole E. Wheeler, Mercedes Valls Serón, Nicholas J. Croucher, Rebecca A. Gladstone, Hester J. Bootsma, Nynke Y. Rots, Alienke J. Wijmenga‐Monsuur, Elisabeth A. M. Sanders, Krzysztof Trzciński, Anne L. Wyllie, Aeilko Having Zwinderman, Leonard H. van den Berg, , Diederik van de Beek

The paper uses genome-wide association studies to show human and pneumococcal genetic variation influences susceptibility and severity of pneumococcal meningitis.

Nature Communications · May 15, 2019Peer-reviewedGenomics

HLA*PRG:LA - HLA typing from linearly projected graph alignments

Alexander Dilthey, Alexander J. Mentzer, Raphaël Carapito, Clare Cutland, Nezih Cereb, Shabir Ahmed Madhi, Arang Rhie, Sergey Koren, Seiamak Bahram, Gil McVean, Adam M. Phillippy

HLA*PRG:LA is a graph alignment model for HLA typing that achieves high accuracy across various sequencing data types.

Bioinformatics · Apr 2, 2019Peer-reviewedBioinformatics