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Institute of Metabolic Science

Metabolic Research Laboratories
 

Research focus  

My research interests lie in using computational methods to improve our understanding and treatments of metabolic and age-related diseases. This work is done in close collaboration with experimental and clinical researchers. 

Background and experience

I am a computational biologist with a background in population genomics and evolutionary biology. I hold a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.  

Working at the IMS-MRL

Currently, there are three main areas of focus. First, in a close collaboration with the Ong/Perry group I contribute to the development of a pipeline to run rare variant association analyses in the UK Biobank cohort. This work has great potential for synergies with the wider institute. It allows us to link data from a wide range of functional assays with robust human genetic evidence. 

Second, I am providing data analysis support, mainly on genomics, for a range of projects across IMS-MRL. Third, I intend to develop a project on the intersection of ageing and metabolism. 

Awards

04/2018 – first author paper selected for the collection “The best of the European Journal of Human Genetics 2016-2017” 

02/2015 – Robinson Collge Bursary 

02/2011 – 08/2012 - Member of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation) due to outstanding academic achievement 

Websites

Find me on X

ResearchGate

 

Publications

Key publications: 

Karusheva, Y., Ratcliff, M., Mörseburg, A*., Barker, P., Melvin, A., Sattar, N., Burling, K., Backmark, A., Roth, R., Jermutus, L., Guiu-Jurado, E., Blüher, M., Welsh, P., Hyvönen, M., & O’Rahilly, S. (2022). The Common H202D Variant in GDF-15 Does Not Affect Its Bioactivity but Can Significantly Interfere with Measurement of Its Circulating Levels. The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, jfac055. https://doi.org/10.1093/jalm/jfac055 

Mörseburg, A., Pagani, L., Malyarchuk, B., Derenko, M., & Kivisild, T. (2022). Response to Wyckelsma et al.: Loss of α-actinin-3 during human evolution provides superior cold resilience and muscle heat generation. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 109(5), 967–972. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.03.014 

Wade, K. H., Lam, B. Y. H., Melvin, A., Pan, W., Corbin, L. J., Hughes, D. A., Rainbow, K., Chen, J.-H., Duckett, K., Liu, X., Mokrosiński, J., Mörseburg, A., Neaves, S., Williamson, A., Zhang, C., Farooqi, I. S., Yeo, G. S. H., Timpson, N. J., & O’Rahilly, S. (2021). Loss-of-function mutations in the melanocortin 4 receptor in a UK birth cohort. Nature Medicine, 27(6), 1088–1096. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01349-y 

Scheib, C. L., Li, H., Desai, T., Link, V., Kendall, C., Dewar, G., Griffith, P. W., Mörseburg, A., Johnson, J. R., Potter, A., Kerr, S. L., Endicott, P., Lindo, J., Haber, M., Xue, Y., Tyler-Smith, C., Sandhu, M. S., Lorenz, J. G., Randall, T. D., … Kivisild, T. (2018). Ancient human parallel lineages within North America contributed to a coastal expansion. Science, 360(6392), 1024–1027. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar6851 

Pagani, L., Lawson, D. J., Jagoda, E., Mörseburg, A*., Eriksson, A., Mitt, M., Clemente, F., Hudjashov, G., DeGiorgio, M., Saag, L., Wall, J. D., Cardona, A., Mägi, R., Sayres, M. A. W., Kaewert, S., Inchley, C., Scheib, C. L., Järve, M., Karmin, M., … Metspalu, M. (2016). Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19792 

*  marks publications where I have shared first authorship. 

My full list of publications can be found on Google Scholar

Computational Biologist
Bio2 Core Facility
Visiting Scientist in the Early Life Aetiology and Mechanisms of Diabetes and Related Metabolic Disorders programme at the MRC Epidemiology Unit (led by Prof Ken Ong and Prof John Perry)
photo of alex moerseburg

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