Penman, Bridget - University of Warwick - Department of Biomedical Science

个人简介

I studied Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford (BA, 2006) and completed a DPhil in Zoology at the University of Oxford (2011). I was a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford (2011-2014), a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Zoology (2011-2015) and between 2015 and 2016 I was a Departmental Research Lecturer in the University of Oxford Department of Zoology.

研究领域

Humans are engaged in a non-stop evolutionary struggle with infectious diseases. I seek to understand how natural selection from pathogens has shaped human genetics. My research falls into two areas: 1. Malaria and the red blood cell The genetic mutations responsible for a variety of human blood conditions - most famously sickle cell anaemia, but also the thalassaemias - make those who carry them less likely to die from malaria. We still do not understand exactly how this malaria protection works. Sickle cell and the thalassaemias are also public health concerns in their own right. Various populations around the world have experienced malaria for many generations, and ended up with different profiles of malaria protective blood disorder genes. I use models to simulate the possible evolutionary histories behind such profiles. These models help me to understand how genetic blood conditions interact with one another and with the malaria parasite, and make predictions about mechanisms of malaria protection. 2. Immunogenetics Our immune systems protect us from pathogens. A female immune system must also be capable of tolerating a foetus during pregnancy. Immune system genes known as HLAs and KIRs are critical to fighting infection, but there is evidence that they affect pregnancy too. I use mathematical models and computational simulations to understand interactions between HLAs, KIRs and pathogens. I intend to identify the genetic signatures of pathogen and reproductive selection on HLAs and KIRs, and to use models to help predict which genetic combinations lead to different health outcomes.

近期论文

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Gonçalves, Bronner P., Gupta, Sunetra, Penman, Bridget S.. 2016. Sickle haemoglobin, haemoglobin C and malaria mortality feedbacks. Malaria Journal, 15 (1), pp. 1-7, View Penman, Bridget S., Moffett, Ashley, Chazara, Olympe, Gupta, Sunetra, Parham, Peter. 2016. Reproduction, infection and killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor haplotype evolution. Immunogenetics, 68 (10), pp. 755-764, View Penman, Bridget S., Gupta, S., Shanks, G. D.. 2016. Rapid mortality transition of Pacific Islands in the 19th century. Epidemiology and Infection, pp. 1-11, View Penman, Bridget S., Gupta, Sunetra, Weatherall, David J.. 2015. Epistasis and the sensitivity of phenotypic screens for beta thalassaemia. British Journal of Haematology, 169 (1), pp. 117-128, View Levin, Bruce R., Watkins, Eleanor R., Penman, Bridget S., Lourenço, José, Buckee, Caroline O., Maiden, Martin C. J., Gupta, Sunetra. 2015. Vaccination drives changes in metabolic and virulence profiles of Streptococcus pneumoniae. PLoS Pathogens, 11 (7), View Hockham, Carinna, Piel, Frédéric B., Gupta, Sunetra, Penman, Bridget S.. 2015. Understanding the contrasting spatial haplotype patterns of malaria-protective ß-globin polymorphisms. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 36, pp. 174-183, View Penman, Bridget S., Ashby, B., Buckee, C. O., Gupta, S.. 2013. Pathogen selection drives nonoverlapping associations between HLA loci. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110 (48), pp. 19645-19650, View Penman, Bridget S., Gupta, Sunetra, Buckee, Caroline O.. 2012. The emergence and maintenance of sickle cell hotspots in the Mediterranean. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 12 (7), pp. 1543-1550, View Penman, Bridget S., Buckee, Caroline, Gupta, Sunetra, Nee, Sean. 2010. Genome-wide association studies in Plasmodium species. BMC Biology, 8 (1), View