Professor Angela Brueggemann
Contact information
Colleges
Angela Brueggemann
IDEU Director and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology
My research focuses on understanding how changes in bacterial population structure impact on global health and vaccine initiatives. I am especially interested in bacteria that are major causes of diseases like meningitis and pneumonia, the most important of which is Streptococcus pneumoniae.
My research group sequences the genomes of large collections of bacterial isolates (thousands of bacteria) to extract the genetic information relevant to our research questions. We use the genome sequence and population structure data to understand how changes within the bacterial population may impact on human health and the success of vaccination programmes.
Our newest initiative is called IRIS (Invasive Respiratory Infection Surveillance), which is a large international consortium of laboratories investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the rates of invasive diseases caused by S pneumoniae, H influenzae and N meningitidis. I also have a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award to investigate bacteriocins, which are antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria to inhibit competing bacteria. We are investigating bacteriocins among bacteria found in the nasopharynx and exploring whether bacteriocins might be developed as novel antimicrobials.
Other projects within the research group relate to investigating bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria), assessing the burden of meningitis in Africa, and making bacterial genomes freely accessible to the international community through PubMLST. I am also involved in outreach and am keen to inspire the next generation of scientists.
Recent publications
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Nasopharyngeal competition dynamics are likely to be altered following vaccine introduction: bacteriocin prevalence and diversity among Icelandic and Kenyan pneumococci.
Journal article
Butler MEB. et al, (2023), Microbial genomics, 9
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Trends in invasive bacterial diseases during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic: analyses of prospective surveillance data from 30 countries and territories in the IRIS Consortium.
Journal article
Shaw D. et al, (2023), The Lancet. Digital health
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Nasopharyngeal competition dynamics are likely to be altered following vaccine introduction: bacteriocin prevalence and diversity among Icelandic and Kenyan pneumococci
Preprint
Butler MEB. et al, (2022)
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Sustained reductions in life-threatening invasive bacterial diseases during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic: analyses of prospective surveillance data from 30 countries participating in the IRIS Consortium
Preprint
Shaw D. et al, (2022)
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Changes in the incidence of invasive disease due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria meningitidis during the COVID-19 pandemic in 26 countries and territories in the Invasive Respiratory Infection Surveillance Initiative: a prospective analysis of surveillance data.
Journal article
Brueggemann AB. et al, (2021), The Lancet. Digital health, 3, e360 - e370