James Gilchrist

I am a paediatric registrar, currently undertaking sub-specialty training in paediatric infectious diseases. I completed my DPhil in Oxford with Adrian Hill’s infectious diseases genetics group (Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics) in 2016, supported by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellowship. My DPhil studies expanded on a long-standing interest in invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease in African children and HIV-infected adults, performing a genome-wide association study of iNTS disease in Kenyan and Malawian children alongside functional validation of disease-associated genetic variation.

I joined the Fairfax group in 2018 supported by an NIHR academic clinical lectureship. My current work aims to understand how environmental exposures, in particular CMV infection, interact with genetic determinants of immune cell function and how this interaction modifies health outcomes. I continue to have an active interest in the host genetic determinants of invasive infection in African children, with ongoing collaborative studies investigating the human genetic determinants of leprosy in African populations and rotavirus disease in Kenyan and Ugandan children (supported by an Academy of Medical Sciences Starter Grant for Clinical Lecturers).