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Modelling evolutionary pathways for commensalism and hypervirulence in neisseria meningitidis

Neisseria meningitidis, the meningococcus, resides exclusively in humans and causes invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The population of N. meningitidis is structured into stable clonal complexes by limited horizontal recombination in this naturally transformable species.

Impact of biobanks on research outcomes in rare diseases: a systematic review

This review made the important observation that registries with biobanks had the function of both stand-alone registries and stand-alone rare disease biobanks

Mothers with intellectual disability and their children in Western Australia

Helen Leonard MBChB MPH Principal Research Fellow +61 419 956 946 helen.leonard@thekids.org.au Principal Research Fellow Areas of research expertise

Maternal diet modulates the infant microbiome and intestinal Flt3L necessary for dendritic cell development and immunity to respiratory infection

Poor maternal diet during pregnancy is a risk factor for severe lower respiratory infections in the offspring, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that in mice a maternal low-fiber diet led to enhanced LRI severity in infants because of delayed plasmacytoid dendritic cell recruitment and perturbation of regulatory T cell expansion in the lungs.

Rare variant analysis in eczema identifies exonic variants in DUSP1, NOTCH4 and SLC9A4

Previous genome-wide association studies revealed multiple common variants involved in eczema but the role of rare variants remains to be elucidated. Here, we investigate the role of rare variants in eczema susceptibility. We meta-analyze 21 study populations including 20,016 eczema cases and 380,433 controls. Rare variants are imputed with high accuracy using large population-based reference panels.

Exposure to bile leads to the emergence of adaptive signaling variants in the opportunistic pathogen pseudomonas aeruginosa

Adaptive variants of P. aeruginosa that arise following long term bile exposure enables the emergence of ecologically competitive sub-populations

Multiancestry association study identifies new asthma risk loci that colocalize with immune-cell enhancer marks

We identified new asthma loci, found new associations at loci implicated in the comorbidity of asthma plus hay fever and confirmed nine known loci.

After asthma: Redefining airways diseases

Identify entrenched areas of asthma management and treatment in which progress has stalled and to challenge current principles

The mechanism or mechanisms driving atopic asthma initiation: The infant respiratory microbiome moves to center stage

Although debate surrounding the mechanism or mechanisms governing this causal pathway remains intense, demonstration of the capacity of pretreatment...

Genetic polymorphism of KIR2DL4 (CD158d), a putative NK cell receptor for HLA-G, does not influence susceptibility to asthma

No reproducible associations with KIR2DL4 genotype were identified, leading us to conclude that the KIR2DL4 9A/10A polymorphism has no influence...