Dan Tonge

Biography

Dr Daniel Tonge is a lecturer at Keele University with experience in academia and within government agencies. Following post-doctoral roles at the School of Veterinary Medicine (Notts) and the MRC, he worked as a Senior Scientist for the Health Protection Agency and as Senior Executive Officer at Public Health England. Dan joined Keele in 2015, and in addition to his teaching and regulatory roles, carries out molecular/bioinformatic projects that require novel thinking and method development to increase our understanding of human disease and disease processes. Dan's recent work has developed and evaluated alternative molecular approaches for the characterisation of a range of microbiomes, investigated the existence of novel microbiome niches, and characterised the complex relationship between host and microbiome in various pathologies.

Dan is engaged in various collaborative projects as a bioinformatician including

characterisation of the lncRNA, MIAT1, in neuroblastoma and glioblastoma (Dr Maarabouni)
identification of nucleic biomarkers of successful autologous cell transplant in the ASCOT clinical trial (Dr Karina Wright and Prof Sally Roberts)
sequencing and de novo assembly of the first Horse Chestnut transcriptome (Dr Shrive and Prof Greenhough, and
elucidating the ncRNA cargo of extracellular vesicles (Dr Chen). Dan is about to embark upon a new study funded by the Engineering biology research, community and capacity development scheme (Keele lead Dr Roberto Galizi) as part of a research collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

A key and sustained research collaboration has been the development of a whole genome-scale lentiviral system and companion sequencing and bioinformatics approach to identify novel sequences associated with cell survival with the Williams’ (Keele) and Farzaneh (Prof Farzaneh, Kings) groups. See Tonge et al 2022.

Research and scholarship

Dr Tonge's current research involves the application (and development) of next generation sequencing and bioinformatic techniques to the areas of personalised medicine (key disease pathway analysis and novel biomarker discovery) and microbial metagenomics.
Current projects include;

An analysis of the circulating miRNA profile of severe, poorly controlled asthmatic patients
The role of obesity in the pathogenesis of hip osteoarthritis – elucidation of key nucleic acid signatures
An analysis of circulating microbial nucleic acids in hip osteoarthritis patients
Metagenomic analyses of the rhizosphere microbiome and its impact on VOC detoxification (PhD Studentship)

Although I work in all disease areas, I have a particular interest in the pathogenesis of Osteoarthritis and the potential for the development of personalised / precision therapeutics.

Selected Publications

Tonge DP, Darling D, Farzaneh F, Williams GT. 2022. Whole-genome-scale identification of novel non-protein-coding RNAs controlling cell proliferation and survival through a functional forward genetics strategy. Sci Rep, 182, vol. 12(1). link> doi> full text>
Hammad DBM, Hider SL, Liyanapathirana VC, Tonge DP. 2019. Molecular Characterization of Circulating Microbiome Signatures in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Front Cell Infect Microbiol, 440, vol. 9. link> doi> full text>
Hammad DBM, Liyanapathirana V, Tonge DP. 2019. Molecular characterisation of the synovial fluid microbiome in rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy control subjects. PLoS One, e0225110, vol. 14(11). link> doi>
Whittle E, Leonard MO, Gant TW, Tonge DP. 2019. Multi-Method Molecular Characterisation of Human Dust-Mite-associated Allergic Asthma. Scientific Reports, Article 8912, vol. 9(1). link> doi> link> full text>
Bountali A, Tonge DP, Mourtada-Maarabouni M. 2019. RNA sequencing reveals a key role for the long non-coding RNA MIAT in regulating neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cell fate. Int J Biol Macromol, 878-891, vol. 130. link> doi> full text>

Full Publications Listshow

Journal Articles

Tonge DP, Darling D, Farzaneh F, Williams GT. 2022. Whole-genome-scale identification of novel non-protein-coding RNAs controlling cell proliferation and survival through a functional forward genetics strategy. Sci Rep, 182, vol. 12(1). link> doi> full text>
Hammad DBM, Hider SL, Liyanapathirana VC, Tonge DP. 2019. Molecular Characterization of Circulating Microbiome Signatures in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Front Cell Infect Microbiol, 440, vol. 9. link> doi> full text>
Hammad DBM, Liyanapathirana V, Tonge DP. 2019. Molecular characterisation of the synovial fluid microbiome in rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy control subjects. PLoS One, e0225110, vol. 14(11). link> doi>
Whittle E, Leonard MO, Gant TW, Tonge DP. 2019. Multi-Method Molecular Characterisation of Human Dust-Mite-associated Allergic Asthma. Scientific Reports, Article 8912, vol. 9(1). link> doi> link> full text>
Bountali A, Tonge DP, Mourtada-Maarabouni M. 2019. RNA sequencing reveals a key role for the long non-coding RNA MIAT in regulating neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cell fate. Int J Biol Macromol, 878-891, vol. 130. link> doi> full text>
Whittle E, Leonard MO, Harrison R, Gant TW, Tonge DP. 2018. Multi-Method Characterization of the Human Circulating Microbiome. Front Microbiol, 3266, vol. 9. link> doi> full text>
Tonge DP and Gant TW. 2016. What is normal? Next generation sequencing-driven analysis of the human circulating miRNAOme. BMC Mol Biol, 4, vol. 17. link> doi> full text>
Tonge DP and Jones SW. 2014. The hallmarks of osteoarthritis and the potential to develop personalised disease-modifying pharmacological therapeutics. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 609-621, vol. 22(5). doi> link>
Tonge DP, Pashley CH, Gant TW. 2014. Amplicon -based Metagenomic Analysis of Mixed Fungal Samples using Proton Release Amplicon Sequencing. PLoS One. doi> full text>
Tonge DP, Parr T, Bardsley R, Jones SW. 2013. Evidence of Changes to Skeletal Muscle Contractile Properties During the Initiation of Disease in the Ageing Guinea Pig Model of Osteoarthritis. Longevity and Healthspan. doi>
Tonge DP, Jones SW, Bardsley RG, Parr T. Characterisation of the sarcomeric myosin heavy chain multigene family in the laboratory guinea pig. BMC Molecular Biology. doi>
Tonge DP and Gant TW. Evidence Based Housekeeping Gene Selection for microRNA-sequencing (miRNA-seq) Studies. Toxicological Research. doi>
Tonge DP, Kelsall J, Tugwood J, Gant TW. The role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of MMPi-induced skin fibrodysplasia. BMC Genomics. doi>
Tonge DP, Bardsley R, Jones SW, Doherty M, Maciewicz RA, Parr T. β2-Adrenergic agonist-induced hypertrophy of the quadriceps skeletal muscle does not modulate disease severity in the rodent meniscectomy model of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. doi>

Other

Maarabouni MM, Tonge D, Bountali K. 2018. Identification of differentially expressed lncrnas in metformin resistant SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. ESMO Open. BMJ Journals. link> doi> full text>
Tonge DP. 2014. Global miRNA profiling for biomarker discovery – What is normal?. Toxicology Letters. Elsevier. doi>
Tonge DP. 2012. The application of Next Generation Sequencing to the detection and analysis of miRNAs. Toxicology Letters. Elsevier. doi>

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