Jacob Westaway

Jacob Westaway is a Senior Research Officer in Global and Tropical Health at Menzies School of Health Research with an active research profile spanning bioinformatics, genomics, and computational methods. He is registered to supervise postgraduate research and maintains an ORCID profile (0000-0002-5171-819X). His scholarly contributions align with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to health and wellbeing, particularly in infectious disease control and maternal/child health.

Westaway's research follows two interconnected trajectories. His doctoral work focused on the gut microbiome of preterm infants born in North Queensland, Australia, examining clinical correlations and the impact of probiotic prophylaxis. This research produced significant publications in 2022 that have accumulated substantial citations. His current work has pivoted toward tropical disease epidemiology, with particular emphasis on Plasmodium knowlesi and other malaria-causing parasites. His methodological expertise bridges computational biology with field epidemiology, enabling sophisticated genomic analyses of pathogen transmission dynamics.

His publication record from 2021-2025 reveals an evolving research program that connects neonatal microbiome science with zoonotic disease epidemiology. Recent work demonstrates increasing sophistication in genomic epidemiology approaches, particularly in his 2025 publications on P. knowlesi adaptation in Malaysia and improved detection methods for zoonotic malaria. His 2024 review on pediatric respiratory microbiome indicates expanding research interests while maintaining methodological consistency.

Westaway collaborates extensively with international research teams, particularly those studying malaria transmission in Southeast Asia. His work on Plasmodium knowlesi involves multidisciplinary collaborations spanning laboratory science, field epidemiology, and clinical medicine. As a registered postgraduate research supervisor, he contributes to training the next generation of researchers in bioinformatics and tropical health.