Research interests

My research interests lie in the application of mathematical modelling and statistical methods to biological and chemical problems. In collaboration with the Analytical and Atmospheric Chemistry Groups, we are developing chemometric techniques for the handling and processing of the very large data sets obtained by -omic techniques. Current projects include the integration of data from different technologies (transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic data) and data fusion methods to combine data sets from multiple analytical techniques (e.g. LC-MS and NMR). Through a well-established collaboration with the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), we have been developing methods for discriminative analysis in the search for biomarkers for disease, the detection of contaminants, and to monitor genetic modification.

In contrast to the mega-variate data sets often obtained by chemical and biochemical analysis, the classification of images usually involves the extraction of relatively few relevant features. The software ALICE (AnaLysis of Images from Crystallisation Experiments), developed in collaboration with structural biology laboratories throughout Europe, aims to identify the results of crystallization experiments to provide information for subsequent trials in an automated procedure. Image analysis techniques are also being applied in bioarchaeology (with BioArCh), where starch granule morphology is used to make inferences about ancient human diet. Other projects with BioArCh include ODE modeling of peptide degradation, the de-convolution of isotope distributions to determine the extent of glutamine deamidation and species identification using peptide mass fingerprinting.

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