Dr Edward Parker
BA MSc PhD
Research Fellow
in Systems Biology
I completed a BA in Biological Sciences at Oxford University, an MSc in Laboratory Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a PhD in infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London.
Affiliations
Centres
Research
My work considers factors that drive variation in response to vaccines. To date, I have focused on the possible contribution of the microbiome to this phenomenon, applying a range of lab and bioinformatic tools to sequence gut bacteria and viruses among infants receiveing oral vaccines in low-income countries.
I am interested in data visualisation, and led the development of an interactive mapping tool to help contextualise the COVID-19 outbreak as well as LSHTM's COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which launched in April 2020. In late 2021, I acted as a consultant for the COVID-19 Working Group of the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization.
I am currently undertaking a UKRI/MRC COVID-19 secondment, working with LSHTM's Electronic Health Records group and the University of Oxford's Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science to explore variation in COVID-19 vaccine response in immunocompromised populations in the UK.
Popular science writing:
A rise in deaths from preventable diseases must not be part of Covid-19's legacy, The Guardian, April 2020
Coronavirus: who is at risk and how do we know? The Conversation, March 2020 (co-authored with Professor Beate Kampmann)
Coronavirus outbreak: a new mapping tool that lets you scroll through timeline, The Conversation, February 2020
Andy Serkis’s Breathe is a haunting reminder of the pre-vaccine era, The Conversation, October 2017 (reprinted by The Independent)
Salk's swansong: renaissance of the injected polio vaccine, Science-based Medicine, October 2014
Sister Kenny: a study in inflexibility, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, June 2014