About

As a geneticist and leader in translational genomics, my career has been dedicated to bridging the gap between cutting-edge genetic research and real-world clinical applications. With a focus on precision medicine, I have successfully led the development and integration of genetic risk prediction tools into healthcare systems globally, overseeing the design and execution of commercial products that provide actionable insights for clinicians.

A key part of this work has been working with end-users to iterate and develop our products so that they serve the required purpose, whilst maintaining sufficient scientific rigour to be clinically viable. We have put our products into people's hands and pioneered the clinical use of common genetic variation for public health. We have shown that whilst rare variants are still important for understanding disease risk, they are not the only players in town. Future use of genomics across healthcare will need to incorporate both rare and common variation.

I am currently CSO at Allelica where I lead our R&D efforts. Allelica builds software to enable clinical genomics labs and healthcare systems to run clinical polygenic risk scores.

You can find a record of my academic publications here .

In 2019 I won the Royal Geographical Society's Land Rover Bursary. The Mobile Malaria Project. involved working with Jaguar Land Rover to convert a Land Rover Discovery into a mobile sequencing lab and driving it across Africa to work with local researchers to test nanopore sequencing technology for malaria control. Our aim was to work with African scientists to trial cheap portable genetic sequencing machines in low resource settings. You can find my (unedited!) daily journal on the pages on the website and much more about the trip at mobilemalaria.com

Away from research, I've developed a malaria genetics based card game (Cards against malaria) that describes how genetics susceptibility to disease works; I collaborated with the Oxford based children's comic The Phoenix to develop a strip about DNA and genetics, and am working with playwright Beth Flintoff to produce a play about the future use of genetics and big data in healthcare.

I have written a range of articles for popular audiences, including for The Conversation and a prizewinning article for Naturejobs. Full list to come.

In 2017 I co-presented The Jesus Strand a documentary for the US History Channel about the science (or lack of it) behind various claims that DNA has been extracted from 2000 year old relics.

Projects

Here is a selection of some of the projects I have worked on over the years.

NOMADS Optimising a nanopore-based assay for malaria resistance markers May 2020 - Feb 2022
The 2018 RGS Land Rover Bursary The Mobile Malaria Project: £30,000 and loan of a Land Rover Discovery for The Mobile Malaria Project. This was a unique expedition to understand the status of malaria research in Africa and to trial mobile genetic sequencing technology in low resource settings. mobilemalaria.com Jan 2018 - Sep 2019
The Mobile Malaria Project Expedition Comic Strip £4,850 Public Engagement with Research Grant from Oxford University to develop a comic strip about malaria and Africa, with Oxford-based children's comic, The Phoenix. You can see it here. Jul 2017 - Jul 2018
Genomes the play £15,000 Wellcome/Oxford University PE Grant to create a play about big data and medicine. I planned and executed an innovative public engagement event involving a play about the future of healthcare. You can see the report here. Jul 2017 - Jul 2018

Publications

[1]
G. B. J. Busby et al., “Genetic analysis of scat reveals leopard Panthera pardus and cheetah Acinonyx jubatus in southern Algeria,” Oryx, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 412–415, 2009.
[2]
G. B. J. Busby et al., “The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 279, no. 1730, pp. 884–892, Mar. 2012, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1044.
[3]
G. B. J. Busby, “Finding the Blues: an investigation into the origin and evolution of African American music,” MRes, Imperial College, London,UK, 2006.
[4]
S. Bertoncini et al., “A Y variant which traces the genetic heritage of ligures tribes,” Journal of Biological Research - Bollettino della Società Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale, vol. 85, no. 1, Nov. 2012, doi: 10.4081/jbr.2012.4087.
[5]
V. Coia et al., “Demographic Histories, Isolation and Social Factors as Determinants of the Genetic Structure of Alpine Linguistic Groups,” PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 12, p. e81704, Dec. 2013, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081704.
[6]
G. Hellenthal et al., “A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History,” Science, vol. 343, no. 6172, pp. 747–751, Feb. 2014, doi: 10.1126/science.1243518.
[7]
S. J. Marks et al., “Static and moving frontiers: the genetic landscape of Southern African Bantu-speaking populations,” Molecular Biology and Evolution, p. msu263, Sep. 2014, doi: 10.1093/molbev/msu263.
[8]
I. Lazaridis et al., “Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans,” Nature, vol. 513, no. 7518, pp. 409–413, Sep. 2014, doi: 10.1038/nature13673.
[9]
A. Cini, S. Patalano, A. Segonds-Pichon, G. Busby, R. Cervo, and S. Sumner, “Social parasitism and the molecular basis of phenotypic evolution,” Frontiers in Genetics, vol. 6, p. 32, 2015, doi: 10.3389/fgene.2015.00032.
[10]
F. Montinaro, G. Busby, V. L. Pascali, S. Myers, G. Hellenthal, and C. Capelli, “Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations,” Nature Communications, vol. 6, Mar. 2015, doi: 10.1038/ncomms7596.
[11]
S. Tofanelli et al., “The Greeks in the West: genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily,” European Journal of Human Genetics, Jul. 2015, doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2015.124.
[12]
C. Martinez-Cadenas et al., “The relationship between surname frequency and Y chromosome variation in Spain,” European Journal of Human Genetics, Apr. 2015, doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2015.75.
[13]
G. Busby et al., “The Role of Recent Admixture in Forming the Contemporary West Eurasian Genomic Landscape,” Current Biology, vol. 25, no. 19, pp. 2518–2526, May 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.007.
[14]
M. González-Santos et al., “Genome-Wide SNP Analysis of Southern African Populations Provides New Insights into the Dispersal of Bantu-Speaking Groups,” Genome Biology and Evolution, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 2560–2568, Sep. 2015, doi: 10.1093/gbe/evv164.
[15]
G. Hellenthal et al., “The Kalash Genetic Isolate? The Evidence for Recent Admixture,” The American Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 98, no. 2, pp. 396–397, Feb. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.12.025.
[16]
F. Montinaro et al., “Complex Ancient Genetic Structure and Cultural Transitions in Southern African Populations,” Genetics, vol. 205, no. 1, pp. 303–316, 2017, doi: 10.1534/genetics.116.189209.
[17]
G. Busby et al., “Admixture into and within sub-Saharan Africa,” eLife, vol. 5, p. e15266, Jun. 2016, doi: 10.7554/eLife.15266.
[18]
E. M. Leffler et al., “Resistance to malaria through structural variation of red blood cell invasion receptors,” Science, p. eaam6393, May 2017, doi: 10.1126/science.aam6393.
[19]
C. M. Ndila et al., “Human candidate gene polymorphisms and risk of severe malaria in children in Kilifi, Kenya: a case-control association study,” The Lancet Haematology, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. e333–e345, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(18)30107-8.
[20]
G. Band et al., “Insights into malaria susceptibility using genome-wide data on 17,000 individuals from Africa, Asia and Oceania,” Nature Communications, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 5732, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13480-z.
[21]
A. Bolli, P. Di Domenico, R. Pastorino, G. Busby, and G. Bottà, “Risk of Coronary Artery Disease Conferred by Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Depends on Polygenic Background,” Circulation, vol. 143, no., 2021, doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.051843.
[22]
D. Mujwara et al., “Integrating a Polygenic Risk Score for Coronary Artery Disease as a Risk-Enhancing Factor in the Pooled Cohort Equation: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Study,” Journal of the American Heart Association, vol., no., p. e025236, 2022, doi: 10.1161/JAHA.121.025236.
[23]
M. Mwenda, “Detection of B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 Variant Strain — Zambia, December 2020,” MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 70, 2021, doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7008e2.
[24]
K. S. Elliott et al., “Fine-Scale Genetic Structure in the United Arab Emirates Reflects Endogamous and Consanguineous Culture, Population History, and Geography,” Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol. 39, no. 3, p. msac039, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.1093/molbev/msac039.
[25]
D. Mujwara, J. Kintzle, P. Di Domenico, G. B. Busby, and G. Bottà, “Cost-effectiveness analysis of implementing polygenic risk score in a workplace cardiovascular disease prevention program,” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 11, 2023, doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1139496.
[26]
G. B. Busby, S. Kulm, A. Bolli, J. Kintzle, P. D. Domenico, and G. Bottà, “Ancestry-Specific Polygenic Risk Scores Are Risk Enhancers for Clinical Cardiovascular Disease Assessments,” Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, p. 7105, Nov. 2023, doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42897-w.
[27]
M. de Cesare et al., “Flexible and Cost-Effective Genomic Surveillance of P. Falciparum Malaria with Targeted Nanopore Sequencing,” Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 1413, Feb. 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45688-z.
[28]
G. Busby, P. Craig, N. Yousfi, S. Hebbalkar, P. Di Domenico, and G. Bottà, “Genetic Assessments of Breast Cancer Risk That Do Not Account for Polygenic Background Are Incomplete and Lead to Incorrect Preventative Strategies,” medRxiv, p. 2021.08.13.21262050, 2021, doi: 10.1101/2021.08.13.21262050.
[29]
G. Busby et al., “Inferring adaptive gene-flow in recent African history,” bioRxiv, Jan. 2017, doi: 10.1101/205252.
[30]
T. J. Hayeck, G. B. J. Busby, S. Chun, A. C. F. Lewis, M. C. Roberts, and B. J. Vilhjálmsson, “Polygenic Risk Scores: Genomes to Risk Prediction,” Clinical Chemistry, vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 551–557, May 2023, doi: 10.1093/clinchem/hvad049.
[31]
P. E. Haffener et al., Adaptive Admixture at ACKR1 (the Duffy Locus) May Have Shaped Plasmodium Vivax Prevalence in Oman. bioRxiv, 2024, p. 2024.03.06.583766. doi: 10.1101/2024.03.06.583766.
[32]
G. B. J. Busby et al., Ancestry-Specific Polygenic Risk Scores Improve Clinical Assessments of Breast Cancer Risk in Diverse Populations. Research Square, 2024. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4022359/v1.
[33]
N. Tsoulos et al., “Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) Combined with NGS Panel Testing Increases Accuracy in Hereditary Breast Cancer Risk Estimation,” Diagnostics, vol. 14, no. 16, 2024, doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14161826.

CV

Employment

Date Role Employer
Feb 2021 - present Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder Allelica Inc
Oct 2020 - Jan 2021 Principal Research Scientist, NOMADS CHG, Oxford University
May 2017 - Sep 2020 Senior Research Associate in Translational Genomics BDI, Oxford University
Jul 2013 - Apr 2017 Research Associate in Statistical Genomics CHG, Oxford University
Oct 2014 - Sep 2014 Non-Stipendiary Lectureship in Human Sciences St Hugh's College, Oxford University
Sep 2008 - Jun 2013 Graduate Research Assistant, Tutor and Demonstrator Dept Zoology, Oxford University
Sep 2007 - Sep 2008 Conservation Genetics Research Technician Insitute of Zoology, London Zoo
Sep 2006 - Sep 2007 Risk Analyst Risk Management Solutions, London

Education

Date Subject Insitute
Oct 2008 - Jun 2012 DPhil Human Evolutionary Genetics Oxford University
Oct 2005 - Sep 2006 MRes Ecology Evolution and Conservation (Distinction) Imperial College London
Oct 2001 - Jul 2005 B.Sc (Hons) Zoology (1st Class) University of Edinburgh

Awards

  • 2013 | Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society
  • 2008 | Somerville College Scholarship
  • 2007 | Postgraduate Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society

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