Dr Andrew jackson

After a Phd at the University of Oxford studying host-parasite co-phylogeny, I spent six years at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute as a Postdoctoral Prize Fellow. During this time I used comparative genomics to examine the genetic mechanisms of disease in diverse parasites, and trypanosomatids in particular. In 2012, I joined the University of Liverpool and established my research group, which concerns the evolution of parasitism. I use genomics and other systems-data to test evolutionary ideas within a comparative method, with three aims: i) Origins. Using comparative genomics to reveal the evolutionary changes that led to parasitism in diverse phyla. ii) Innovations. Using comparative and functional approaches to identify the species-specific mechanisms by which parasites cause disease, with applications in cell biology, and pathogenesis. iii) Applications. Applying our knowledge of how parasite genomes evolve to antigen discovery, reverse vaccinology, disease epidemiology and other approaches.