Kayla Barnes, PH.D.

Kayla Barnes is an associate professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and she is based at the Wellcome Center in Malawi. Kayla’s lab focuses on two programs that bookend the dynamics of health in low-income countries. These include tracking viral pathogens and understanding vaccine response, at the omics level. Kayla leads a multi-country analysis for arbovirus burden and immunogenicity (Wellcome). Her lab is also investigating immune responses over the first year of life in infants and how this relates to vaccine success (BMGF). Her goal is to use surveillance, genomics and immunology to inform better vaccines for LICs.

Previously, Kayla was a NIH career development fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health which funded her single cell program in Malawi — exploring infant health dynamics. Prior to her fellowship at HSPH, Kayla was a postdoc at the Broad Institute with Pardis Sabeti where she studied susceptibility to Ebola Virus Disease and Lassa fever as well as numerous projects exploring viral genetics, novel CRISPR diagnostics and single cell genomics. During her postdoc, Kayla was awarded a NIH-K01, the ASTMH Shope and the Broad Next 10 fellowships.

First/Co-First Publications

*Denotes starred first authors that contributed equally to this paper, §Denotes corresponding authors

Genomic Analysis of Lassa Virus during an Increase in Cases in Nigeria in 2018

New England Journal of Medicine. 2018, Nov 1; 379
Siddle KJ, Eromon P, Barnes KG§, Mehta S, Oguzie JU, Odia I...… MacInnis BL, Sabeti PC, Happi CT§.

Evidence of Ebola Virus Replication and High Concentration in Semen of a Patient During Recovery.

Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2017, Oct 15; 65(8)
Barnes KG, Kindrachuk J, Lin AE*, Wohl S, Qu J, Tostenson SD, Dorman WR, Busby M, Siddle KJ, Luo CY, Matranga CB, Davey RT, Sabeti PC, and Chertow DS§.

Africa-wide selective sweep of pyrethroid genes correlates with scaling up of malaria control.

Plos Genetics. 13 (2): e1006539
Barnes KG, Weedall G, Ndula M, Irving H, Mzilahowa T, Hemingway J, Wondji CS§.

Restriction to gene flow is linked to changes in the molecular basis of pyrethroid resistance in the malaria vector Anopheles funestus.

PNAS. 2016, Nov 11; 114(2).
Barnes KG, Irving H, Chiumia M, Mzilahowa T, Coleman M, Hemingway J, Wondji CS§.

Selected Co-Author Publications

*Denotes starred first authors that contributed equally to this paper.

Capturing diverse microbial sequence with comprehensive and scalable probe design.

Nature. 2019, Feb; 37(2).
Metsky HC, Siddle KJ… Barnes KG … Sabeti PC, Matranga CB.

Field-deployable viral diagnostics using CRISPR-Cas.

Science. 2018, Apr 27; 360(6387).
Myhrvold C, Freije CA, Jonathan S. Gootenberg JS, Abudayyeh OO, Metsky HC, Durbin AF, Kellner MJ, Tan AL, Paul LM, Parham LA, Garcia KF, Barnes KG, Chak B, Mondini A, Nogueira ML, Isern S, Michael SF, Lorenzana I, Yozwiak NL, MacInnis BL, Bosch I, Gehrke L, Zhang F, and Sabeti PC.

Ebola Virus Persistence in Ocular Tissues and Fluids (EVICT) Study: Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction and Cataract Surgery Outcomes of Ebola Survivors in Sierra Leone.

Ebio Medicine. 2017, Apr 30.
Shantha JG, Mattia JG, Goba A, Barnes KG, … Garry RF, Vandy M, Yeh S.

Zika virus evolution and spread in the Americas.

Nature. 2017, May 24.
Metsky HC, Matranga CB, Wohl S, Schaffner SF, … Barnes KG … Isern S, Michael SF, Bozza FA, Souza TML, Bosch I, Yozwiak NL, MacInnis BL, Sabeti PC.

Genomic epidemiology reveals multiple introductions of Zika virus into the United States.

Nature. 2017, May 24.
Grubaugh ND, Ladner JT, Kraemer MUG, Dudas G, Tan AL, …. Barnes KG …. Rambaut A, Sanchez-Lockhart M, Sabeti PC, Gillis LD, Michael SF, Bedford T, Pybus OG, Isern S, Palacios G, Andersen KG.

Partners in crime: the highly polymorphic CYP6M7 cytochrome P450 gene combines with the directionally selected CYP6P9a and CYP6P9b genes to expand the pyrethroid resistance front in the malaria vector Anopheles funestus in Africa.

BMC Genomics. 2014, 15:817.
Riveron JM, Ibrahim SS, Chanda E, Mzilahowa T, Cuamba N, Irving H, Barnes KG, Ndula M, Wondji CS.

Directionally selected cytochrome P450 alleles are driving the spread of pyrethroid resistance in the major malaria vector Anopheles funestus.

PNAS. 2013, Jan 2;110(1).
Riveron JM, Irving H, Ndula M, Barnes KG, Ibrahim SS, Paine MJI, Wondji CS.

Impact of pyrethroid resistance on operational malaria control in Malawi.

PNAS. 2012, Nov 20;109(47):19063-70
Wondji CS, Coleman M, Kleinschmidt I, Mzilahowa T, Irving H, Ndula M, Rehman A, Morgan J, Barnes KG, Hemingway J.

Hybrid selection for sequencing pathogen genomes from clinical samples.

Genome Biology. 2011, 12(8):R73.
Melnikov A, Galinsky K, Rogov P, Fennell T, Van Tyne D, Russ C, Daniels R, Barnes KG, Bochicchio J, Ndiaye D, Sene PD, Wirth DF, Nusbaum C, Volkman SK, Birren BW, Gnirke A, Neafsey DE.

Identification and functional validation of the novel antimalarial resistance locus PF10_0355 in Plasmodium falciparum.

PLoS Genetics. 2011, v7:4.
Van Tyne D, Park DJ, Schaffner SF, Neafsey DN, Angelino E, Cortese JF, Barnes KG, Rosen DM, Lukens AK, Daniels RF, Milner DA, Johnson CA, Shlyakhter I, Grossman SR, Becker JS, Yamins D, Karlsson EK, Ndiaye D, Sarr O, Mboup S, Happi C, Furlotte NA, Eskin E, Kang HM, Hartl DL, Birren BW, Wiegand RC, Lander ES, Wirth DF, Volkman SK, Sabeti PC.

KAYLA BARNES, Ph.D.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

First/Co-First Publications

*Denotes starred first authors that contributed equally to this paper, §Denotes corresponding authors

New England Journal of Medicine. 2018, Nov 1; 379 Siddle KJ, Eromon P*, Barnes KG*§, Mehta S*, Oguzie JU*, Odia I*...… MacInnis BL*, Sabeti PC*, Happi CT*§.

Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2017, Oct 15; 65(8) Barnes KG*, Kindrachuk J*, Lin AE*, Wohl S, Qu J, Tostenson SD, Dorman WR, Busby M, Siddle KJ, Luo CY, Matranga CB, Davey RT, Sabeti PC, and Chertow DS§.

Plos Genetics. 13 (2): e1006539 Barnes KG*, Weedall G*, Ndula M, Irving H, Mzilahowa T, Hemingway J, Wondji CS§.

PNAS. 2016, Nov 11; 114(2). Barnes KG, Irving H, Chiumia M, Mzilahowa T, Coleman M, Hemingway J, Wondji CS§.

Selected Co-Author Publications

*Denotes starred first authors that contributed equally to this paper.

Nature. 2019, Feb; 37(2). Metsky HC*, Siddle KJ*… Barnes KG … Sabeti PC*, Matranga CB*.

Ebio Medicine. 2017, Apr 30. Shantha JG, Mattia JG, Goba A, Barnes KG, … Garry RF, Vandy M, Yeh S.

Nature. 2017, May 24. Metsky HC, Matranga CB, Wohl S, Schaffner SF, … Barnes KG … Isern S, Michael SF, Bozza FA, Souza TML, Bosch I, Yozwiak NL, MacInnis BL, Sabeti PC.

Nature. 2017, May 24. Grubaugh ND, Ladner JT, Kraemer MUG, Dudas G, Tan AL, …. Barnes KG …. Rambaut A, Sanchez-Lockhart M, Sabeti PC, Gillis LD, Michael SF, Bedford T, Pybus OG, Isern S, Palacios G, Andersen KG.

BMC Genomics. 2014, 15:817. Riveron JM*, Ibrahim SS*, Chanda E, Mzilahowa T, Cuamba N, Irving H, Barnes KG, Ndula M, Wondji CS.

PNAS. 2013, Jan 2;110(1). Riveron JM, Irving H, Ndula M, Barnes KG, Ibrahim SS, Paine MJI, Wondji CS.

PNAS. 2012, Nov 20;109(47):19063-70 Wondji CS*, Coleman M*, Kleinschmidt I, Mzilahowa T, Irving H, Ndula M, Rehman A, Morgan J, Barnes KG, Hemingway J.

Genome Biology. 2011, 12(8):R73. Melnikov A, Galinsky K, Rogov P, Fennell T, Van Tyne D, Russ C, Daniels R, Barnes KG, Bochicchio J, Ndiaye D, Sene PD, Wirth DF, Nusbaum C, Volkman SK, Birren BW, Gnirke A, Neafsey DE.