I originally trained in Mathematics at Imperial College London, then did a PhD on statistical pattern recognition applied to digital sky surveys. For my postdoctoral research, undertaken at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, I kept working with similar statistical techniques, but changed domain to genetics and genomic science, working in genetic epidemiology.
Since 2017, I have been based in Malawi, at MLW, where I head the Statistical Support Unit.
Research
My research is in the field of applied biostatistics. Originally, my background lies in classification and related pattern recognition techniques, many of which fall under the more general banner of machine learning. In terms of applications, my postdoctoral work has largely centred on statistical genetics: genetic epidemiology, biomarker discovery, network reconstruction from and integrative analysis of -omics data using machine learning methods as well as causal modelling via graphical models. The focus of this work has been in oncology and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as on stem cells. With my move to Malawi in 2017, my focus has shifted to tropical medicine and infectious diseases. In terms of statistics, since starting at MLW, I have been working on (i) extending latent variable models for longitudinal immunological data, (ii) developing a flexible regression modelling framework for serological data to inform vaccine schedules and (iii) developing software for deriving confidence intervals for combinations of independently estimated parameters. In addition to this, I have provided more traditional biostatistical support to clinical trials and observational, epidemiological or immunological studies. I have continued to pursue my interests in statistical genetics through analysis of transcriptomic data from human challenge experiments. Finally, I am deeply passionate about building biostatistical capacity in Malawi.
Current positions
Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Programme (MLW) - member of Senior Management Team, Research Strategy Group, Heads of Department, co-chair of the Training and Development Committee, head of the Statistical Support Unit, head of the Biostatistics Associate Research Group
LIGHT Consortium - statistics lead
Start 4 All - statistics lead, member of the Senior Management Group, Central Ledership Team and the Malawi research team
Teaching
I teach on the DLTROP204 - Epidemiology and Statistics programme.
Further relevant expertise, professional memberships, awards
Royal Statistical Society - GradStat
International Biometric Society - member, member of the Malawi Region executive committe, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee
International Statistical Institute - regular member
HIC-Vac Network - associate member