Latest Publications
Cost-effectiveness of routine COVID-19 adult vaccination programmes in England
Matt J. Keeling, Edward M. Hill, Stavros Petrou, Phuong Bich Tran, May Ee Png, Sophie Staniszewska, Corinna Clark, Katie Hassel, Julia Stowe, Nick Andrews
In England, and many other countries, immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease is highly heterogeneous.. During the height of the pandemic in England, the main aim was to rapidly protect the population and large supplies of vaccine were pre-purchased, eliminating the need for cost-effective calculations. As we move to an era where for the majority of the population SARS-CoV-2 infections cause relatively mild disease, and vaccine stocks need to be re-purchased, it is important we consider the cost-effectiveness and economic value of COVID-19 vaccination programmes. Here using data from 2023 and 2024 in England on COVID-19 hospital admissions, ICU admissions and deaths, coupled with bespoke health economic costs, we consider the willingness to pay threshold for COVID-19 vaccines in different age and risk groups.
One-two punch : phage-antibiotic synergy observed against staphylococcus aureus by combining pleurotin and phage K
Michaël Dagne Tadesse, Nala Ali, Martha White, Lijiang Song, Fabrizio Alberti, Antonia P. Sagona
There is an urgent need for novel antimicrobial therapies, chemical and nonantibiotic. The basidiomycota-derived, secondary metabolite pleurotin has been shown to be effective against Gram-positive bacteria, while bacteriophages could be the ultimate nonantibiotic alternative. In this study, the combination of pleurotin and phage K targeting S. aureus was examined. Pleurotin was isolated from the basidiomycota fungus Hohenbuehelia grisea. The cytotoxicity of pleurotin was assessed in two human cell lines in comparison to pleuromutilin, vancomycin, and phage K. The antibiotics were then tested independently or in combination with phage K against two S. aureus strains. Cytotoxicity of pleurotin in human cells was comparable to vancomycin and pleuromutilin. Results suggest that adding phage K has a synergistic effect and can lower the MIC for pleurotin, pleuromutilin, and vancomycin. This demonstrates that pleurotin could be a viable antistaphylococcal drug.
Impact of Phage Therapy on Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae and Plant Microbiome Dynamics Through Coevolution and Field Experiments
Matevz Papp-Rupar, Emily R. Grace, Naina Korotania, Maria-Laura Ciusa, Robert W. Jackson, Mojgan Rabiey
Isolation of phages targeting the cherry pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (Pss) led to five distinct phage genotypes. Building on previous in vitro coevolution experiments, the coevolution of the five phages (individually and as a cocktail) with Pss on cherry leaves was conducted in glasshouse and field experiments. Phages effectively reduced Pss numbers on detached leaves, with no evidence of phage resistance emerging in the bacterial population. Field application of phages in a cherry orchard in Southeast England evaluated phage survival, viability and impact on bacterial populations and the microbial community. The bacterial population and phages persisted in the leaf and shoot environment as long as the bacterial host was present. In contrast to in vitro studies, the plant environment constrained the emergence of phage resistant Pss populations.
Single-calibration cell size measurement with flow cytometry
Philip Davies, Massimo Cavallaro, Daniel Hebenstreit
Measuring the size of individual cells in high-throughput experiments is often important in biomedical research and applications. In this paper, we demonstrate that it is possible to calibrate flowcytometry laser scatter signals with accurate measures of cell diameter from separate devices and that the calibration can be conserved upon changes in the laser settings A straightforward procedure is presented that relates the flow cytometric scatter parameters to the absolute size measurements using linear models, along with a linear transformation that converts between different instrument settings on the flow cytometer. Our method makes it possible to record on a flow cytometer a cell's size in absolute units and correlate it with other features that are recorded in parallel in the fluorescence detection channels.
Leishmaniasis in deployed military populations : a systematic review and meta-analysis
Niba Rawlings, Ngwa, Bailey, Mark and Courtenay, Orin
This systematic review and meta-analysis of data specific to military populations aims to identify knowledge gaps to mitigate sand fly exposure and Leishmania transmission during deployments. Regular use of long-lasting insecticidal nets to mitigate sand fly exposure demonstrated high potential effectiveness than other reported personal protective measures (PPMs) which yielded mixed or inconclusive results. In summary, the systematic review revealed the substantial variability between study designs and statistical integrity. There is need for more consistent and robustly designed studies including well-define controls and replication. Future studies would be advised to explore the long-term effectiveness and practicality of PPMs, both individually and in combination, across diverse deployment settings.
Historic manioc genomes illuminate traditional maintenance of diversity under long-lived clonal cultivation
Logan Kistler, Fabio de Oliveira Freitas, Rafal M. Gutaker, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Marcelo F. Simon, J. Moises Mendoza Flores, Sergei V. Drovetski, ¬Hope Loiselle, Eder Jorge de Oliveira, Eduardo Alano Vieira, Luiz Joaquim Castelo Branco Carvalho, Marina Ellis Perez, Audrey T. Lin, Hsiao-Lei Liu, Rachel Miller, Natalia A. S. Przelomska, Aakrosh Ratan, Nathan Wales, Kevin Wann, Shuya Zhang, Magdalena García, Daniela Valenzuela, Francisco Rothhammer, Calogero M. Santoro, Alejandra I. Domic, José M. Capriles, Robin Allaby
Manioc—also called cassava and yuca—is among the world’s most important crops, originating in South America in the early Holocene. Domestication for its starchy roots involved a near-total shift from sexual to clonal propagation, and almost all manioc worldwide is now grown from stem cuttings. In this work, we analyze 573 new and published genomes, focusing on traditional varieties from the Americas and wild relatives from herbaria, to reveal the effects of this shift to clonality. We observe kinship over large distances, maintenance of high genetic diversity, intergenerational heterozygosity enrichment, and genomic mosaics of identity-by-descent haploblocks that connect all manioc worldwide. Interviews with Indigenous traditional farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado illuminate how traditional management strategies for sustaining, diversifying, and sharing the gene pool have shaped manioc diversity.