Andrew Armitage

I have worked with Hal Drakesmith since 2008 in the field of iron biology, particularly in relation to infection, anaemia and immunity. I have a particular interest in iron’s importance in early life especially within a global health context. Having previously worked on projects related to regulation of hepcidin, the key hormone involved in dictating systemic iron homeostasis, my projects now focus primarily on the interplay between iron status and the immune system.

To this end, I have been developing multi-omic approaches for studying how iron deficiency and iron supplementation – besides other factors including chronic viral infection and inflammation – affect immune phenotypes and vaccine responses in populations at risk of iron deficiency in resource-limited settings.  These approaches incorporate data from mass cytometry (CyTOF) and Olink proteomic analysis, and are being applied as sub-studies of iron intervention clinical trials from Bangladesh and Thailand.

Prior to joining the Drakesmith group, I carried out my DPhil in the MRC Human Immunology Unit (HIU), supervised by Astrid Iversen and Andrew McMichael. My project evaluated whether APOBEC3 anti-HIV restriction factors, which are capable of extensively editing viral genomes, are likely to contribute to HIV-1 diversification.  

Beyond our specific research group, I also perform other roles:  

• I am a Research Staff Representative for RDM in the Medical Sciences Division Research Staff Forum.
• I am an Early-to-Mid Career Researcher Representative on the Medical Sciences Division Board.
• I help oversee the monthly unit-wide TIDU Immunology Breakfast journal club series that facilitates discussion of recent high profile developments in immunology.
• I manage and maintain the QuantStudio7 qRT-PCR instrumentation for the MRC TIDU.
• I provide tutorials in Immunology to Oxford undergraduate Biochemistry students.