Nick loman | |
---|---|
Born | Nicholas James Loman 1979 (age 42–43) Brighton, England |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Queen Mary University of London |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Microbiology |
Institutions | University of Birmingham |
Doctoral advisor | Mark Pallen |
Nicholas James Loman (born February 1979) was co-founder of the Gamer Network with his brother Rupert, which they started under the name Eurogamer Network in 1999. [1] Nick left the business in 2004 to pursue a career in medicine. [2]
Loman studied medicine at Queen Mary University of London. He undertook an intercalated BSc degree in Pathology (Infection & Immunity) from Imperial College in 2001 and graduated in Medicine from Queen Mary University of London in 2004. He then spent some time as junior doctor, before working as a bioinformatician in Mark Pallen's research group at the University of Birmingham from 2007 to 2012, where gained a PhD in Comparative Bacterial Genomics. [3] On completing his thesis, Loman developed an interest in emerging viral infections, using Nanopore sequencing to track the spread of Ebola in the Western African Ebola virus epidemic. [4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he played a key role in establishing bioinformatics workflows for genomic analysis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. [5] [6]
Since 2017, Loman has been professor of microbial genomics and bioinformatics at the Institute for Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham. [7] He is also a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute. [8]
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dimensional structural configuration. In contrast to genetics, which refers to the study of individual genes and their roles in inheritance, genomics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of all of an organism's genes, their interrelations and influence on the organism. Genes may direct the production of proteins with the assistance of enzymes and messenger molecules. In turn, proteins make up body structures such as organs and tissues as well as control chemical reactions and carry signals between cells. Genomics also involves the sequencing and analysis of genomes through uses of high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to assemble and analyze the function and structure of entire genomes. Advances in genomics have triggered a revolution in discovery-based research and systems biology to facilitate understanding of even the most complex biological systems such as the brain.
La Jolla Institute for Immunology is a non-profit research organization located in La Jolla, California. It is located in UC San Diego’s Research Park. The Institute researches immunology and immune system diseases. The Institute employs 220 M.D.s and Ph.D.s, including 23 faculty members and more than 450 employees. Dr. Mitchell Kronenberg has served as its president and scientific director since 2003. The institute was founded in 1988.
Pathogenomics is a field which uses high-throughput screening technology and bioinformatics to study encoded microbe resistance, as well as virulence factors (VFs), which enable a microorganism to infect a host and possibly cause disease. This includes studying genomes of pathogens which cannot be cultured outside of a host. In the past, researchers and medical professionals found it difficult to study and understand pathogenic traits of infectious organisms. With newer technology, pathogen genomes can be identified and sequenced in a much shorter time and at a lower cost, thus improving the ability to diagnose, treat, and even predict and prevent pathogenic infections and disease. It has also allowed researchers to better understand genome evolution events - gene loss, gain, duplication, rearrangement - and how those events impact pathogen resistance and ability to cause disease. This influx of information has created a need for making the vast amounts of data accessible to researchers in the form of databases, and it has raised ethical questions about the wisdom of reconstructing previously extinct and deadly pathogens in order to better understand virulence.
CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) is a scientific research institute devoted primarily to biological research. It is a part of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India.
Niyaz Ahmed is a molecular epidemiologist, professor of microbial sciences, genomicist, and a veterinarian by training, based in Hyderabad.
Redeemer's University is a private university in Ede, Osun, off Ibadan-Oshogbo Road, Osun State, Nigeria. Established in 2005, the university is owned by the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
Roy Curtiss, III is a professor of Genomics, Evolution, & Bioinformatics at the University of Florida. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2001.
The John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics (HIHG) is a genome center at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.
The Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) is an Australian tropical health and medical research institute based at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville and Cairns, Queensland. Formerly known as the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, AITHM was established at JCU in 2008.
Andrew Kasarskis is an American biologist. He is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Sema4. He was previously CDO and an Executive Vice President (EVP) at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City and, before that, vice chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and Co-director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Kasarskis is known for taking a network-based approach to biology and for directing the first medical school class offering students the opportunity to fully sequence and analyze their own genomes.
Julian Parkhill is the Marks & Spencer Professor of Farm Animal Health, Food Science and Safety in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. He previously served as head of pathogen genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited is a UK-based company which is developing and selling nanopore sequencing products for the direct, electronic analysis of single molecules.
Mark J. Pallen is a Research Leader at the Quadram Institute and Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of East Anglia. In recent years, he has been at the forefront of efforts to apply next-generation sequencing to problems in microbiology and ancient DNA research.
Sharon Jayne Peacock is a British microbiologist who is Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. She is known for her work on the use of microbial whole genome sequencing in diagnostic and public health microbiology, particularly on the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei and on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
The Philippine Genome Center (PGC) is a multi-disciplinary research facility in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines which specializes in genomics.
Willem van Schaik is a Dutch microbiologist. He is professor of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham.
Clinical metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is the comprehensive analysis of microbial and host genetic material in clinical samples from patients. It uses the techniques of metagenomics to identify and characterize the genome of bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses without the need for a prior knowledge of a specific pathogen directly from clinical specimens. The capacity to detect all the potential pathogens in a sample makes metagenomic next generation sequencing a potent tool in the diagnosis of infectious disease especially when other more directed assays, such as PCR, fail. Its limitations include clinical utility, laboratory validity, sense and sensitivity, cost and regulatory considerations.
The COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) is a group of public health agencies and academic institutions in the United Kingdom created in April 2020 to collect, sequence and analyse genomes of SARS-CoV-2 as part of COVID-19 pandemic response. The consortium comprises the UK's four public health agencies, National Health Service organisations, academic partners and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. The consortium is known for first identifying the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant in November 2020. As of January 2021, 45% of all SARS-CoV-2 sequences uploaded to the GISAID sequencing database originated from COG-UK.
Trevor Bedford is an American computational virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Tulio de Oliveira is a Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African permanent resident professor of bioinformatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and associate professor of global health at the University of Washington. He has studied outbreaks of chikungunya, dengue, hepatitis B and C, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, yellow fever and Zika. During the COVID-19 pandemic he led the team that confirmed the discovery of the Beta variant of the COVID-19 virus in 2020 and the Omicron variant in 2021.