Dr David Eccles
Research Fellow
Department of Biomedical Science
Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
New Zealand
Biography
Dr David Eccles completed his postgraduate degree in biomedical science at Victoria University of Wellington in 2011. Dr Eccles is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Bioinformatics Research Analyst at The Malaghan Institute. He began his work at the Institute in late 2013 but also collaborates with various scientists around the world.
Research Interest
My main interest is exploring the biological code (DNA) that instructs our bodies how to work and how to respond to our environment. I am particularly fascinated by looking for patterns in DNA (or the absence of patterns), and investigating how those patterns describe organisms and influence biological systems. The treasure and curse of bioinformatics is that almost every project opens up a new and unexpected area of research. I am excited by the discoveries we make, and have a constant battle with myself to clear my head of finished projects, and concentrate on new tasks and projects that await me. I work as the glue between biologists and computers, helping with project design, data analysis and result presentation. I support researchers by using computer programs and can even develop custom software solutions for their projects. This work is usually called bioinformatics. It can speed up an analysis to be up to 5-10 times faster and allows researchers to explore existing data in more depth than previously possible. When the scientists I work with are no longer shackled to slow data processing, they are free to spend that time getting creative and expanding their research.
Publications
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Connor LM, Tang SC, Cognard E, Ochiai S, Hilligan KL, Old SI, Pellefigues C, White RF, Patel D, Smith AA, Eccles DA, Lamiable O, McConnell MJ, Ronchese F. (2017) Th2 responses are primed by skin dendritic cells with distinct transcriptional profiles. J Exp Med.
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Stuart S, Benton MC, Eccles DA, Sutherland HG, Haupt LM, Lea RA, Griffiths LR. (2017) Gene-centric analysis implicates nuclear encoded mitochondrial protein gene variants in migraine susceptibility. Mol Genet Genomic Med.
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Chandler J, Camberis M, Bouchery T, Blaxter M, Le Gros G, Eccles DA. (2017) Annotated mitochondrial genome with Nanopore R9 signal for Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. F1000Res.
