Emma Davenport

Dr. Emma Davenport is a Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute within the Human Genetics Programme, where she leads the Davenport Group focused on Functional Genomics of Variation in Disease Response. She joined the Sanger Institute in October 2018 after completing postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School in Professor Soumya Raychaudhuri's lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Broad Institute. Her research integrates functional genomics and clinical data to understand how genetics contributes to patient-to-patient heterogeneity in disease severity and treatment response.

Dr. Davenport's primary research interests focus on diseases involving systemic inflammation such as sepsis and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Her work employs sophisticated analytical methods to analyze functional genomics data from hundreds of patient cohorts, integrating this with clinical information. She specializes in transcriptomic profiling to stratify patients and understand individual responses to infections and autoimmune conditions. Her group investigates expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) interactions to uncover how environmental factors modulate genetic regulatory effects on gene expression.

Analysis of Dr. Davenport's publication record reveals a strong focus on patient stratification through transcriptomic signatures, particularly in sepsis where her group identified the Sepsis Response Signature (SRS) endotypes. Her research spans multiple areas including host-pathogen interactions, drug response variability, and single-cell eQTL mapping in autoimmune diseases. Recent work has expanded into multi-omics approaches, integrating genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data to understand the molecular basis of disease heterogeneity.

Dr. Davenport has successfully mentored numerous PhD students and postdoctoral fellows who have contributed significantly to her research program. Her group collaborates extensively with clinical partners through initiatives like the Genomics Advances in Sepsis (GAinS) study and the Bioresource for Adult Infectious Diseases (BioAID), applying genomic approaches to improve diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.