Using genomics to understand diarrhoea epidemiology

Vaccines against rotavirus, the most common cause of diarrhoea globally, don’t work well in LMICs populations that need them the most. Co-infections might influence vaccine immunity. Genomics and epidemiology help us improve diagnostics, and find out whether some additional strains need to be included in future vaccines.

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Based at Kilifi KWTRP, Dr Charles Agoti is a laboratory scientist interested in enteric pathogen epidemiology specifically: co-infections, pathogenesis and transmission in low-income settings.

Dr Agoti holds a BSc degree (Chemistry and Biochemistry), an MSc in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases and a PhD in Molecular epidemiology. He joined the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Kilifi in 2006 and for 10 years researched on transmission epidemiology of respiratory viral infections in coastal Kenya.

Dr Agoti is currently supported by the IDeAL (Initiave to Develop African Research Leaders) programme (under Mid-Career Research Fellowship) to study Viral Diarrhoea Genomics Pre- and Post-Rotavirus Vaccination in Kenya to Understand Virus Source, Transmission Patterns and Vaccine Impact. His research expertise includes large-scale sequencing and bioinformatic analysis for a range of respiratory, enteric and blood borne arboviruses to illuminate on local evolutionary and transmission patterns to suggest new ways of infection control.