Parkinson Lab


Our focus:

We combine computational and genomic approaches to study the impact of microbes on human health. These microbes include bacterial pathogens such as Neisseria gonorrhea, the causative agent of gonorrhea, as well as parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agents of toxoplasmosis. We also study the role of complex microbial communities (microbiomes) in a host of chronic diseases including obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and malnutrition. Key to these analyses are “systems-based” methods, such as metabolic modelling and network biology, that allow us to understand how genes are organized into the biochemical pathways that drive infection. Application of these methods has allowed the identification of novel drug targets, helping drive the development of novel therapeutics that are urgently needed to combat the rise of antimicrobial resistance.

Research

Intrigued by our work? Check out our ongoing research, current activities and collaborations here.

Tools

We develop in-house pipelines and tools that offer novel methods to the bioinformatics field.

Teaching

Dr. Parkinson lectures at the undergraduate, graduate and national level. More information is outlined here.