Charlene is a clinical academic, with her research based at LSHTM in microbial genomics and working as a paediatric consultant specialising in infectious diseases at St Mary's Hospital, London. Charlene is also a consultant in the pathogen genomics programme at UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency).
Charlene's research focuses on the use of microbial genomics and its application to clinical and public health practice and policy. She is working to better integrate genomics and bioinformatic analyses into healthcare settings to ensure they are more accessible to clinicians, microbiologists and epidemiologists to improve patient care. Charlene's work with UKHSA is to help develop an integrated agency wide Pathogen Genomics programme, identifying and establishing robust and accredited services for priority pathogens.
Charlene graduated from medical school (Leicester University) in 2007 and subsequently trained as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow (Imperial College London). She completed Paediatric Infectious Diseases/Immunology GRID training (Great North Children's Hospital, Newcastle) with Microbiology (St George's Hospital, London). She has long been interested in genomics, in the context of host and pathogen variation, and undertook a Wellcome Trust funded DPhil in genomic epidemiology (University of Oxford), studying meningococcal vaccine antigens (see Research tab for more details).
Charlene's full publications list: ORCID and Google Scholar
Charlene's research focuses on the use of microbial genomics and its application to clinical and public health practice and policy. She is working to better integrate genomics and bioinformatic analyses into healthcare settings to ensure they are more accessible to clinicians, microbiologists and epidemiologists to improve patient care. Charlene's work with UKHSA is to help develop an integrated agency wide Pathogen Genomics programme, identifying and establishing robust and accredited services for priority pathogens.
Charlene graduated from medical school (Leicester University) in 2007 and subsequently trained as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow (Imperial College London). She completed Paediatric Infectious Diseases/Immunology GRID training (Great North Children's Hospital, Newcastle) with Microbiology (St George's Hospital, London). She has long been interested in genomics, in the context of host and pathogen variation, and undertook a Wellcome Trust funded DPhil in genomic epidemiology (University of Oxford), studying meningococcal vaccine antigens (see Research tab for more details).
Charlene's full publications list: ORCID and Google Scholar
Affiliations
Department of Infection Biology
Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases
Teaching
Charlene teaches on various clinical genomics based modules in Master's level courses at LSHTM.
Externally, she also co-leads the Wellcome Trust Advanced course "Genomics and Clinical microbiology" course.
https://coursesandconferences.wellcomeconnectingscience.org/event/genom…
Externally, she also co-leads the Wellcome Trust Advanced course "Genomics and Clinical microbiology" course.
https://coursesandconferences.wellcomeconnectingscience.org/event/genom…
Research
Charlene's research interests are in applications of microbial genomics in the clinical and public health setting to inform preventative and therapeutic measures. Charlene completed a Wellcome Trust funded DPhil, supervised by Prof. Martin Maiden at the University of Oxford (2015-18), in genomic epidemiology of meningococcal vaccine antigens. Charlene developed genomic typing methods (Bexsero Antigen Sequence Typing, Outer Membrane Vesicle Typing) to assess the diversity and distribution of meningococcal vaccine antigens in a national collection of disease-causing meningococci from the UK. These tools along with further translational genomic applications (MenDeVAR Index) are publicly-available via pubmlst.org.
Charlene continues to develop methods to better integrate genomics and bioinformatic analyses in accessible reports for non-genomics specialists in healthcare settings. Her work focusses on reporting of Klebsiella pneumoniae genomic data, as a major cause of neonatal sepsis particularly affecting LMIC, and the associated antimicrobial resistance.
Charlene continues to develop methods to better integrate genomics and bioinformatic analyses in accessible reports for non-genomics specialists in healthcare settings. Her work focusses on reporting of Klebsiella pneumoniae genomic data, as a major cause of neonatal sepsis particularly affecting LMIC, and the associated antimicrobial resistance.
Selected Publications
Implementing the WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Guidelines for Pediatric Pharyngitis/Tonsilitis in Ghana: An Implementation Research Approach
2026
Implementing the WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Guidelines for Pediatric Pharyngitis/Tonsillitis in Ghana: An Implementation Research Approach
Effective antimicrobial therapies needed for treatment of severe infections in African newborns.
2025
Expert review of anti-infective therapy
