Phumrapee Boonklang
PhD student
I am a PhD student based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge, while also maintaining a research assistant position at the Microbiology Department, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Research Unit (MORU). I am interested in infectious disease genomic research, particularly how patients’ heterogenous susceptibility/severity can be explained by variation in both host and pathogen genomes. In my thesis, I will use functional genomic approach to understand host genetic determinants in response to infections, by integrating several data modalities including host whole genome sequencing data and transcriptomic data, as well as associated clinical metadata.
My research interest has steadily matured since I started working (2019-current) at MORU in the Chewapreecha group focussing on melioidosis genomic research, a neglected infectious disease disproportionately impacting the global south with reported high mortality. I completed my computational MPhil in Biological Science at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge, where I worked on transcriptomic and clinical data, supervised by Dr Emma Davenport and Dr Claire Chewapreecha.
Having worked in both well-resourced and resource-limited settings, I have become to appreciate the importance and impacts of multi-disciplinary multi-omic projects. My ultimate goal is to bring the expertise and experiences that I have developed to accelerate genomic research in Thailand and in South-East Asia. I wish to contribute to capacity building and improve representation of genomic data from our region, through ethical and equitable collaborations, allowing the under-studied Thai/South-East Asian populations to benefit from future genomic studies.