Mr Jacob Westaway

Bioinformatician

Qualifications:

PhD, James Cook University, 2022; Honours in Biomedical Science, Griffith University, 2013; Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Griffith University, 2012

Approved level of HDR supervision at Charles Darwin University:

Secondary supervisor for PhD

Location:

Darwin – Royal Darwin Hospital

Biography:

Jacob is a bioinformatician with experience using genomics and computational methods. For his PhD, Jacob used such methods to investigate the gut microbiome of preterm infants born in North Queensland, Australia, exploring its relationship to a host of clinical factors and the impact of early life probiotic prophylaxis.
At Menzies, Jacob is now using genomic and computational methods to investigate the population structure, transmission and epidemiology of several Plasmodium species, with a focus on the zoonotic Plasmodium knowlesi parasite.

Mr Jacob Westaway
Email
Research Themes
  1. Rayman MP, Bath SC, Westaway J, et al. Selenium status in UK pregnant women and its relationship with hypertensive conditions of pregnancy. British Journal of Nutrition. 2015;113(2):249-258. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000711451400364X
  2. Westaway, J.A.F., Huerlimann, R., Kandasamy, Y. et al. The bacterial gut microbiome of probiotic-treated very-preterm infants: changes from admission to discharge. Pediatr Res 92, 142–150 (2022).  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-021-01738-6
  3. Tsang, H.H.; Domingos, J.A.; Westaway, J.A.F.; Kam, M.H.Y.; Huerlimann, R.; Bastos Gomes, G. Digital Droplet PCR-Based Environmental DNA Tool for Monitoring Cryptocaryon irritans in a Marine Fish Farm from Hong Kong. Diversity 2021, 13, 350. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13080350
  4. Westaway JAF, Huerlimann R, Kandasamy Y, Miller CM, Norton R, Watson D, Infante-Vilamil S, Rudd D. To Probiotic or Not to Probiotic: A Metagenomic Comparison of the Discharge Gut Microbiome of Infants Supplemented With Probiotics in NICU and Those Who Are Not. Front Pediatr. 2022 Mar 7;10:838559. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2022.838559
  5. Westaway, J.A.F., Huerlimann, R., Miller, C.M. et al. Methods for exploring the faecal microbiome of premature infants: a review. matern health, neonatol and perinatol 7, 11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40748-021-00131-9
  6. Westaway, J.A.F., Huerlimann, R., Kandasamy, Y. et al. Exploring the long-term colonisation and persistence of probiotic-prophylaxis species on the gut microbiome of preterm infants: a pilot study. Eur J Pediatr 181, 3389–3400 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-022-04548-y
  7. Atto, B.; Anteneh, Y.; Bialasiewicz, S.; Binks, M.J.; Hashemi, M.; Hill, J.; Thornton, R.B.; Westaway, J.; Marsh, R.L. The Respiratory Microbiome in Paediatric Chronic Wet Cough: What Is Known and Future Directions. J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13, 171. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13010171
  8. Braima KA, Piera KA, Lubis IND, Noviyanti R, Rajahram GS, Kariodimedjo P, Nainggolan IRA, Permatasari R, Trianty L, Amalia R, Sakam SS, Tan AF, William T, Westaway JAF, Lee P, Daim S, Surendra H, Christy N, Letizia AG, Peatey CL, Moideen MA, Barber BE, Sutherland CJ, Anstey NM, Grigg MJ. Improved limit of detection for zoonotic Plasmodium knowlesi and P. cynomolgi surveillance using reverse transcription for total nucleic acid preserved samples or dried blood spots. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2025 Feb 6;19(2):e0012129. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012129
  9. Westaway JAF, Diez Benavente E, Auburn S, Kucharski M, Aranciaga N, Nayak S, William T, Rajahram GS, Piera KA, Braima K, Tan AF, Alaza DA, Barber BE, Drakeley C, Amato R, Sutanto E, Trimarsanto H, Jelip J, Anstey NM, Bozdech Z, Field M, Grigg MJ. Genomic epidemiology of Plasmodium knowlesi reveals putative genetic drivers of adaptation in Malaysia. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2025 Mar 12;19(3):e0012885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012885
  10. Mary E Petrone, Justine Charon, Matthew J Grigg, Timothy William, Giri S Rajahram, Jacob Westaway, Kim A Piera, Mang Shi, Nicholas M Anstey, Edward C Holmes, A virus associated with the zoonotic pathogen Plasmodium knowlesi causing human malaria is a member of a diverse and unclassified viral taxon, Virus Evolution, Volume 10, Issue 1, 2024, veae091, https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veae091

Click here to view more Jacob Westaway publications in PubMed.

 

 

Find these publications at Pubmed or visit our Publications Library