Currently, Tim studies the infant gut microbiome in the context of malnutrition and hospitalisation as part of a collaboration with the CHAIN network (https://chainnetwork.org/), a large research network seeking to identify the causes of mortality in acutely ill children admitted to hospital across Africa and South-East Asia. The objective is to discover health-associated biomarkers, such as microbial species, strains and genes, that may deepen our understanding of how to better treat acute malnutrition and reduce mortality. Included in this research is characterising the association of the infant gut microbiome with geographical location, age, malnutrition, antibiotic use, diet and disease status.
In a support role, Tim primarily manages metagenomic data through genomes assemblies and characterisation of the microbial community composition. He improves these processes by developing pipelines and measuring the effectiveness of alternative methodologies.