Contact information
Tom Parks
Group Leader
- Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow
- Honorary Consultant in Infectious Disease (Imperial College Healthcare)
Alongside my work ongoing work at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, I am now a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Infectious Disease at Imperial College London. I hold a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship.
The main focus of my research is investigating host genetic susceptibility to group A streptococcal disease, especially rheumatic heart disease. My doctoral studies undertaken in Oxford under the supervision of Professor Adrian Hill included a genome-wide association of susceptibility to rheumatic heart disease set in the Pacific. More details, including information about access to data, are available here.
Building on my earlier work on susceptibility to rheumatic heart disease, I am now focussed on understanding how complex genetic regions such as the immunoglobulin gene loci influence acquisition of antibody-mediated immunity to various pathogens including the group A streptococcus. My strategy involves using a combination of array genotyping and short-read sequencing alongside more targeted long-read approaches. In the longer term, I expect to be able to exploit these approaches to assist development of much needed vaccines and therapeutics to combat disease caused by a wide range of infectious agents.
Recent publications
-
Quantifying potential immortal time bias in observational studies in acute severe infection
Yates TA. et al, (2025), Open Forum Infectious Diseases
-
Acute rheumatic fever in the UK and Ireland: a BPSU surveillance study
Gourlay-Gudex M. et al, (2025), Archives of Disease in Childhood
-
Quantifying potential immortal time bias in observational studies in acute severe infection
Yates TA. et al, (2025)
-
Altered IL-6 signalling and risk of tuberculosis: a multi-ancestry mendelian randomisation study
Hamilton F. et al, (2025), The Lancet Microbe, 6, 100922 - 100922
-
High-resolution African HLA resource uncovers HLA-DRB1 expression effects underlying vaccine response
Mentzer AJ. et al, (2024), Nature Medicine, 30, 1384 - 1394