Professor Emile Rugamika Chimusa

Professor

Department: Applied Sciences

Prof. Emile R. Chimusa is an internationally recognised computational population genomics and bioinformatics researcher and an experienced educator. He has recently joined Northumbria from the University of Cape Town, where he served as Associate Professor and Programme director of PGDip/MSc/PhD in Computational Health Informatics and Honours in Human Genetics and Forensic Genetics.

He has been a part of a wide array of International Research Consortiums that he has received both research and industry focused funding from the South African National Research Foundation, South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Newton Fund, Canadian International Development Fund, NIH, The Wellcome Trust and Health~Holland. In total, he has received over £17.7 million in research funding as PI or Co-investigator. His research has been published in high-impact international journals and presented both at major scientific conferences and in broadcast, print, and web-based media worldwide. He has a record of accomplishment in designing and developing Computational and Bioinformatics tools (https://github.com/echimusa).

Email Emile Rugamika

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research has a focus on methodologies of improving the analysis of large-scale genomic studies such as genome-wide association, fine-mapping studies, admixture mapping, genomics of mixed ancestry populations and analysing genome wide patterns of variation within and between species to address fundamental questions in biology, anthropology, and medicine. My interest is to unlock genomics in healthcare through computational and statistical methods to understand the genomics and environment architecture of complex diseases, variation in drug/treatment response. This interest is extending in methodologies and developing tools for deconvoluting human genomics diversity to uncover the role of genetic and environmental factors in determining risk and susceptibility of communicable and non-communicable diseases. I develop Bioinformatics methods/tools pertinent to genetic and environmental determinants of susceptibility to complex diseases, drug responses, genome variation, microbial omics, and infectious diseases from both the host and pathogen perspectives to facilitate the transformation of genomics-driven clinical practice.

Our current range of developed Bioinformatics tools from functional genomics, post-Genome-wide Association Studies, disease risk prediction, Gene Ontology semantic similarity can be found at (https://github.com/echimusa).

I am actively involved in the development of bioinformatics and Omics Data Science educational courses to offer a unique opportunity in the use of bioinformatics and computational methods to access and harness large complicated high-throughput data and uncover meaningful information that could be used to understand molecular mechanisms and develop novel targeted therapeutics/diagnostic tools.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Exploring pharmacogenetic factors influencing hydroxyurea response in tanzanian sickle cell disease patients: a genomic medicine approach, Nkya, S., Nzunda, C., Saukiwa, E., Kaywanga, F., Buchard, E., Solomon, D., Christopher, H., Ngowi, D., Johansen, J., Urio, F., Mgaya, J., Kindole, C., Yonazi, M., Karim, S., Alimohamed, M., Sangeda, R., Chamba, C., Dandara, C., Novelli, E., Chimusa, E., Makani, J. 23 Apr 2025, In: Pharmacogenomics Journal
FLT1 and other candidate fetal haemoglobin modifying loci in sickle cell disease in African ancestries, Wonkam, A., Esoh, K., Levine, R., Ngo Bitoungui, V., Mnika, K., Nimmagadda, N., Dempsey, E., Nkya, S., Sangeda, R., Nembaware, V., Morrice, J., Osman, F., Beer, M., Makani, J., Mulder, N., Lettre, G., Steinberg, M., Latanich, R., Casella, J., Drehmer, D., Arking, D., Chimusa, E., Yen, J., Newby, G., Antonarakis, S. 1 Mar 2025, In: Nature Communications
Computational disease-risk prediction: Tools and statistical approaches, Chimusa, E. 15 Nov 2024, Population Genomics in the Developing World, London, United Kingdom, Academic Press
Genetic Modifiers of Sickle Cell Anemia Phenotype in a Cohort of Angolan Children, Ginete, C., Delgadinho, M., Santos, B., Miranda, A., Silva, C., Guerreiro, P., Chimusa, E., Brito, M. 8 Apr 2024, In: Genes
Modelling Microbiome Association with Host Phenotypes Using a Bayesian Dirichlet Process Model, Awany, D., Chimusa, E. 12 Oct 2024
Network-based integrative multi-omics approach reveals biosignatures specific to COVID-19 disease phases, Agamah, F., Ederveen, T., Skelton, M., Martin, D., Chimusa, E., 't Hoen, P. 8 Jul 2024, In: Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
Network-based Multi-omics Disease–Drug Associations Reveal Drug Repurposing Candidates for Covid-19 Disease Phases, Agamah, F., Ederveen, T., Skelton, M., Martin, D., Chimusa, E., 't Hoen, P. 3 Jul 2024, In: Drug Repurposing
Towards genomic medicine: a tailored next-generation sequencing panel for hydroxyurea pharmacogenomics in Tanzania, Nkya, S., Nzunda, C., Saukiwa, E., Kaywanga, F., Buberwa, E., Solomon, D., Christopher, H., Ngowi, D., Johansen, J., Urio, F., Mgaya, J., Karim, S., Alimohamed, M., Sangeda, R., Chamba, C., Chimusa, E., Novelli, E., Makani, J. 18 Jul 2024, In: BMC Medical Genomics
Data standardization in the omics field, Rugamika, C., Kumuthini, J., Zass, L., Chaouch, M., Gill, Z., Ras, V., Mungloo-Dilmohamud, Z., Sathan, D., Ghoorah, A., Fadlelmola, F., Fields, C., Van Horn, J., Radouani, F., Konopko, M., Baichoo, S. Jan 2023, Genomic Data Sharing: Case Studies, Challenges, and Opportunities for Precision Medicine, Elsevier
Genome-wide association study identifies novel candidate malaria resistance genes in Cameroon, Esoh, K., Apinjoh, T., Amambua-Ngwa, A., Nyanjom, S., Chimusa, E., Amenga-Etego, L., Wonkam, A., Achidi, E. 15 Jun 2023, In: Human Molecular Genetics