Dr Rama Kandasamy
Senior Research Associate

Dr Rama Kandasamy

Medicine & Health
School of Clinical Medicine

I am a paediatrician and researcher based at Sydney Children's Hospital Network and UNSW. I completed my Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a post-doctorate at Imperial College London. This experience has allowed me to develop the ability to apply sophisticated bioinformatic, computational, and molecular approaches to large patient cohorts and pathogen data. I also have experience in clinical studies and trials, with a focus on pneumococcal disease and vaccination, in a wide variety of settings, including the UK and Nepal. I have worked on a EU collaborative study on the genetic basis of childhood infection (EUCLIDS) and continue to work on a major international collaborative study on childhood infection (PERFORM, Horizon 2020 funded with 10 EU partners studying RNA and proteomic approaches to the diagnosis of infection).

  • Journal articles | 2022
    Lo SW; Mellor K; Cohen R; Alonso AR; Belman S; Kumar N; Hawkins PA; Gladstone RA; von Gottberg A; Veeraraghavan B; Ravikumar KL; Kandasamy R; Pollard SAJ; Saha SK; Bigogo G; Antonio M; Kwambana-Adams B; Mirza S; Shakoor S; Nisar I; Cornick JE; Lehmann D; Ford RL; Sigauque B; Turner P; Moïsi J; Obaro SK; Dagan R; Diawara I; Skoczyńska A; Wang H; Carter PE; Klugman KP; Rodgers G; Breiman RF; McGee L; Bentley SD; Almagro CM; Varon E; Brooks A; Corso A; Davydov A; Maguire A; Kiran A; Moiane B; Beall B; Zhao C; Aanensen D; Everett D; Faccone D; Foster-Nyarko E; Bojang E; Egorova E; Voropaeva E; Sampane-Donkor E; Sadowy E; Nagaraj G; Mucavele H; Belabbès H; Elmdaghri N; Verani J; Keenan J; Lees J; N Nair Thulasee Bhai J; Ndlangisa K; Zerouali K; Bentley L; Titov L; De Gouveia L; Alaerts M; Ip M; de Cunto Brandileone MC; Hasanuzzaman M; Paragi M; Nurse-Lucas M; du Plessis M; Ali M; Croucher N; Wolter N; Givon-Lavi N; Porat N; Köseoglu Eser Ö; Ho PL; Eberechi Akpaka P; Gagetti P; Tientcheu PE; Law P; Benisty R; Mostowy R; Malaker R; Grassi Almeida SC; Doiphode S; Madhi S; Devi Sekaran S; Clarke S; Srifuengfung S; Nzenze S; Kastrin T; Ochoa T; Hryniewicz W, 2022, 'Emergence of a multidrug-resistant and virulent Streptococcus pneumoniae lineage mediates serotype replacement after PCV13: an international whole-genome sequencing study', The Lancet Microbe, 3, pp. e735 - e743, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(22)00158-6
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Childhood Invasive Bacterial Disease in Kathmandu, Nepal (2005-2013)', Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 41, pp. 192 - 198, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/INF.0000000000003421
    Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Effect of childhood vaccination and antibiotic use on pneumococcal populations and genome-wide associations with disease among children in Nepal: an observational study', The Lancet Microbe, 3, pp. e503 - e511, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(22)00066-0
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Persistence of Immunity following 2-Dose Priming with a 10-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine at 6 and 10 Weeks or 6 and 14 Weeks of Age in Nepalese Toddlers', Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, pp. 937 - 943, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/INF.0000000000003223
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'A mosaic tetracycline resistance gene tet(S/M) detected in an MDR pneumococcal CC230 lineage that underwent capsular switching in South Africa', Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 75, pp. 512 - 520, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkz477
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Assessment of an Antibody-in-Lymphocyte Supernatant Assay for the Etiological Diagnosis of Pneumococcal Pneumonia in Children', Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2019.00459
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Persistent circulation of vaccine serotypes and serotype replacement after 5 years of infant immunization with 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the United Kingdom', Journal of Infectious Diseases, 221, pp. 1361 - 1370, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz178
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Upper airways colonisation of Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults aged 60 years and older: A systematic review of prevalence and individual participant data meta-analysis of risk factors', Journal of Infection, 81, pp. 540 - 548, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.028
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Visualizing variation within global pneumococcal sequence clusters (GPSCS) and country population snapshots to contextualize pneumococcal isolates', Microbial Genomics, 6, pp. 1 - 13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000357
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'Comparison of two schedules of two-dose priming with the ten-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in Nepalese children: an open-label, randomised non-inferiority controlled trial', The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 19, pp. 156 - 164, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30568-1
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'Pneumococcal lineages associated with serotype replacement and antibiotic resistance in childhood invasive pneumococcal disease in the post-PCV13 era: an international whole-genome sequencing study', The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 19, pp. 759 - 769, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30297-X
    Journal articles | 2018
    2018, 'Global distribution of invasive serotype 35D streptococcus pneumoniae isolates following introduction of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine', Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 56, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00228-18
    Journal articles | 2018
    2018, 'Serotype-Specific Correlates of Protection for Pneumococcal Carriage: An Analysis of Immunity in 19 Countries', Clinical Infectious Diseases, 66, pp. 913 - 920, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix895
    Journal articles | 2018
    2018, 'The relative invasive disease potential of Streptococcus pneumoniae among children after PCV introduction: A systematic review and meta-analysis', Journal of Infection, 77, pp. 368 - 378, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2018.06.004
    Journal articles | 2016
    2016, 'Non-specific immunological effects of selected routine childhood immunisations: Systematic review', BMJ (Online), 355, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i5225
    Journal articles | 2016
    2016, 'The predicted persistence and kinetics of antibody decline 9 years after pre-school booster vaccination in UK children', Vaccine, 34, pp. 4221 - 4228, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.06.051
    Journal articles | 2015
    2015, 'A cross-sectional observational study of pneumococcal carriage in children, their parents, and older adults following the introduction of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine', Medicine (United States), 94, pp. e335, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000000335
    Journal articles | 2015
    2015, 'Comparison of two-dose priming plus 9-month booster with a standard three-dose priming schedule for a ten-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in Nepalese infants: A randomised, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial', The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 15, pp. 405 - 414, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(15)70007-1
    Journal articles | 2015
    2015, 'Multi-serotype pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage prevalence in vaccine naive nepalese children, assessed using molecular serotyping', PLoS ONE, 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114286
    Journal articles | 2004
    Riminton DS; Kandasamy R; Dravec D; Basten A; Baxter AG, 2004, 'Dermal Enhancement: Bacterial Products on Intact Skin Induce and Augment Organ-Specific Autoimmune Disease', Journal of Immunology, 172, pp. 302 - 309, http://dx.doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.172.1.302