Dr Archana Sharma-Oates PhD

Dr Archana Sharma-Oates

School of Biosciences
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Email
a.sharma-oates@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Sharma-Oates’s research interest include the influence of ethnicity on disease onset and disease severity with a focus on autoimmune inflammatory diseases.

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Qualifications

  • BSc, Biochemistry, University of Liverpool, UK
  • MRes (Distinction), Bioinformatics, University of Leeds, UK
  • PhD “Interpretation of C. elegans Genome Sequence Data through Gene Expression Patterns”, University of Leeds, UK

Biography

Following her undergraduate degree, Dr. Sharma-Oates spent a year working as a research assistant at Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA. She then returned to the UK to pursue an MRes in Bioinformatics at the University of Leeds, followed by a PhD, which included a three-month fellowship at the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, Japan. After completing her PhD, she worked for several years as a post-doctoral research fellow in various research areas, including cancer, animal development and disease, and COVID-19. In 2021, she began her current position as an Assistant Professor in Bioinformatics in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham. Dr. Sharma-Oates is also affiliated with the Centre for Environmental Research and Justice (CERJ) and the Department of Inflammation and Ageing.

Teaching

Program Lead of MSc Bioinformatics (Distance Learning)

Module Lead for Computational Biology for Complex Systems (Dubai)

Module Lead for Essentials for Complex Systems (Distance Learning)

Module Lead for Computational Biology for Complex Systems (Distance Learning)

Deputy Lead for Computational Biology for Complex Systems (Edgbaston)

Postgraduate supervision

Dr. Sharma-Oates is currently supervising bioinformatics projects focused on:

  • Integrative analysis of genetic, proteomic, and clinical data to identify biomarkers of persistent pain in post-operative osteoarthritis patients.
  • Exploring mechanisms of platelet function using large datasets and employing machine learning and bioinformatics tools.

Students interested in pursuing a PhD position are encouraged to contact Dr. Sharma-Oates directly via email.

Research

Archana Sharma-Oates is an Assistant Professor in Bioinformatics with extensive experience in transcriptomic, whole genome/exome sequences and methylome data analysis applied to research in cancer, muscoskeletal and ageing.  She is particularly interested in determining the underlying mechanisms behind the earlier onset of diseases in minority ethnic groups, focusing on the contributions of the environmental factors versus the genetics.

Research portal link: https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/persons/archana-sharma-oates

Other activities

She is a member of the Biosciences Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee and the British Society for Research on Ageing

Publications

Sharma-Oates A, Dunne N, Raza K, Padyukov L Rivera N, van der Helm van Mil AHM, Pratt AG. Duggal N, Jones SW, Lord J. Ethnicity-specific patterns of epigenetic age acceleration in rheumatoid arthritis. GeroScience 2025 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01508-w2025.

Conway J, De Jong EN, White AJ, Dugan B, Rees NP, Parnell SM, Lamberte LE, Sharma-Oates A, Sullivan J, Mauro C, van Schaik W, Anderson G, Bowdish DME, Duggal NA. Age-related loss of intestinal barrier integrity plays an integral role in thymic involution and T cell ageing. Aging Cell. 2024 Nov 15:e14401. doi: 10.1111/acel.14401.

Chen YY, Sullivan J, Hanley S, Price J, Tariq MA, McIlvenna LC, Whitham M, Sharma-Oates A, Harrison P, Lord JM, Hazeldine J. Impact of Senescent Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles on Innate Immune Cell Function. Adv Biol (Weinh). 2024 8(12):e2400265. doi: 10.1002/adbi.202400265.

Wilson DG, Sharma-Oates A, Sheldon J, Power DF, Lord JM, Robert PR, Morgan JM. Predictors of death without prior appropriate therapy in ICD recipients. The Comorbidities, frailty and functional Status (COMFFORT STUDY) Open heart 2024 11(2):e002574. DOI: 10.1136/openhrt-2023-002574.

DaviesN, FrancisT, OldreiveC, Maria Azam, Wilson J, ByrdPJ, BurleyM, Sharma-OatesA, [ and 18 other authors]. Genome-scale CRISPR screen identifies nucleotide metabolism as an actionable therapeutic vulnerability in DLBCL.  Haematologica 2024 109(12):3989-4006. https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2023.284404.

Sharma-Oates A, Sullivan J, Pestana D, Dos Santos CC, Binnie A, Lord JM. 2023 The influence of epigenetic age on outcomes in critically ill patients. Crit Care Explor. 2024, 6(2):e1044. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000001044.

Lord J, Veenith T, Sullivan J, Sharma-Oates, A et al. Accelerated immune ageing is associated with COVID-19 disease severity. Immun Ageing. 21, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-023-00406-z.

Duggal NA, Raza K, Sharma-Oates A, Padyukov L, van der Helm-van Mil AHM, Pratt AG, Jones SW, Filer A, LordJM.Specific features of Immune ageing are detected in the earliest stages in Rheumatoid Arthritis development. Annals of Rheumatic Diseases 202281(1):1152. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2022-eular.4896.

Sharma-Oates A, Zemedikun DT, Kumar K. et al. Early onset of immune-mediated diseases in minority ethnic groups in the UK. BMC Med.  2022 20, 346. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02544-5

Wijesinghe SN, Badoume A, Nanus DE, Sharma-Oates A, et al. Obesity defined molecular endotypes in the synovium of patients with osteoarthritis provides a rationale for therapeutic targeting of fibroblast subsets. Clin Transl Med. 2023 13(4):e1232. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.1232.

Várnai C, Palles C, Arnold R, Curley HM, Purshouse K, Cheng VWT, Booth S, Campton NA, Collins GP, Hughes DJ, Kulasekararaj AG, Lee AJX, Olsson-Brown AC, Sharma-Oates A, Van Hemelrijck M, Lee LYW, Kerr R, Middleton G, Cazier JB; UKCCMP Team. Mortality Among Adults With Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy or Immunotherapy and Infected With COVID-19. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 5(2):e220130. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0130.

Alnajjar F, Sharma-Oates A, Wijesinghe SN, Farah H, Nanus DE, Nicholson T, Davis ET, Jones SW. The expression and function of Metastases Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript-1 long non-coding RNA in subchondral bone and osteoblasts from patients with osteoarthritis. Cells [IF: 4.8]2021, 10(4), 786.

Parry HM, Zuo J, Cutmore N, Mirajkar N, Vong L, Kinsella-Mitchell F, Pachnio A, Ciaurriz M, Begum J, Croft W, Sharma-Oates A, Pratt G, Moss P. PD-1 is imprinted on cytomegalovirus-specific CD4+ T cells and attenuates Th1 cytokine production whilst maintaining cytotoxicity. PLoS Pathog [IF: 6.2]. 2021, 17(3): e1009349.

Chin IK, Galavotti S, Yip KP, Curley H, Arnold R, Sharma-Oates A, Chegwidden L, Lee SI, Lee LYW, Pinato DJ, Dettorre GM, Palles C. Influence of clinical characteristics and anti-cancer therapy on outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 5,678 cancer patients. medRxiv 2021 doi: 10.1101/2020.12.15.20248195.

Lee LYW, Cazier JB,[Sharma-Oates A and others]. COVID-19 prevalence and mortality in patients with cancer and the effect of primary tumour subtype and patient demographics: a prospective cohort study. Lancet Oncol. [IF:33.8] 2020 Oct;21(10):1309-1316.

Lee LYW, Cazier JB, [Sharma-Oates A and others]. COVID-19 mortality in patients with cancer on chemotherapy or other anticancer treatments: a prospective cohort study. Lancet [IF: 59.1]. 2020 Jun 20;395(10241):1919-1926.

The UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project: protecting patients with cancer in the era of COVID-19. Lancet Oncol. [IF:33.8] 2020 May;21(5):622-624.

Kwok M , Oldreive C , Rawstron AC, Goel A, Papatzikas G, Jones RE, Drennan S, Agathanggelou A, Sharma-Oates A, Evans P, Smith E, Dalal S, Mao J, Hollows R, Gordon N, Hamada M, Davies NJ, Parry H, Beggs AD, Munir T, Moreton P, Paneesha S, Pratt G, A. Taylor MR, Forconi F, Baird DM, Cazier J-B, Moss P, Hillmen P and Stankovic T. Integrative analysis of spontaneous CLL regression highlights genetic and microenvironmental interdependency in CLL. Blood [IF:17.5]. 2020, 6:135(6):411-428.

Law P, Timofeeva M, Fernandez-Rozadilla C, [A. Sharma-Oates and 94 others,] Association analyses identify 31 new risk loci for colorectal cancer susceptibility. Nat Commun. [IF:12.1] 2019 May 14;10(1):2154.

Sharma-Oates A, Shabaan A, Tomlinson I, Wynn L, Cazier J-B and Sundar S. Landscape of germline variants in breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes in India and clinico-pathological correlation - a systematic review. Precision Clinical Medicine, 2018 1 September:1(2), 75–87.

Inman C, Eldershaw S, Croudace J, Davies N, Sharma-Oates A,  Rai T, Pearce H, Sirovica M, Cham T,  Zuo J, Nagra S, Kinsella F,  Nunnick J, Amel-Kashipaz R, Craddock C, Malladi R and Moss P. Unique features and clinical importance of acute alloreactive immune responses. JCI Insight [IF:6.2]. 2018;3(10):e97219.