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Alan W. Walker
Researcher at University of Aberdeen
Publications - 237
Citations - 19761
Alan W. Walker is an academic researcher from University of Aberdeen. The author has contributed to research in topics: Branching fraction & Gut flora. The author has an hindex of 57, co-authored 228 publications receiving 16341 citations. Previous affiliations of Alan W. Walker include Rowett Research Institute & University of Edinburgh.
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Journal ArticleDOI
Reagent and laboratory contamination can critically impact sequence-based microbiome analyses
Susannah J. Salter,Michael J. Cox,Elena M. Turek,Szymon T. Calus,William O.C.M. Cookson,Miriam F. Moffatt,Paul Turner,Paul Turner,Julian Parkhill,Nicholas J. Loman,Alan W. Walker,Alan W. Walker +11 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that contaminating DNA is ubiquitous in commonly used DNA extraction kits and other laboratory reagents, varies greatly in composition between different kits and kit batches, and that this contamination critically impacts results obtained from samples containing a low microbial biomass.
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Dominant and diet-responsive groups of bacteria within the human colonic microbiota.
Alan W. Walker,Jennifer Ince,Sylvia H. Duncan,Lucy M. I. Webster,Grietje Holtrop,Xiaolei Ze,David Stanley Brown,Mark D. Stares,Paul Scott,Aurore Bergerat,Petra Louis,Freda M McIntosh,Alexandra M. Johnstone,Gerald E. Lobley,Julian Parkhill,Harry J. Flint +15 more
TL;DR: Time courses obtained by targeted qPCR revealed that ‘blooms’ in specific bacterial groups occurred rapidly after a dietary change, and these were rapidly reversed by the subsequent diet.
Journal ArticleDOI
Shotgun metagenomics, from sampling to analysis
Christopher Quince,Alan W. Walker,Jared T. Simpson,Jared T. Simpson,Nicholas J. Loman,Nicola Segata +5 more
TL;DR: Computational approaches to overcome the challenges that affect both assembly-based and mapping-based metagenomic profiling, particularly of high-complexity samples or environments containing organisms with limited similarity to sequenced genomes, are needed.
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Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium exploits inflammation to compete with the intestinal microbiota
Bärbel Stecher,Riccardo Robbiani,Alan W. Walker,Astrid M. Westendorf,Manja Barthel,Marcus Kremer,Samuel Chaffron,Andrew J. Macpherson,Jan Buer,Julian Parkhill,Gordon Dougan,Christian von Mering,Wolf-Dietrich Hardt +12 more
TL;DR: Manipulation of the intestinal microbiota by the enteropathogenic bacterium Salmonella enterica subspecies 1 serovar Typhimurium in a mouse colitis model reveals a new concept in infectious disease: in contrast to current thinking, inflammation is not always detrimental for the pathogen.
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pH and peptide supply can radically alter bacterial populations and short-chain fatty acid ratios within microbial communities from the human colon.
TL;DR: It is suggested that a lowering of pH resulting from substrate fermentation in the colon may boost butyrate production and populations ofbutyrate-producing bacteria, while at the same time curtailing the growth of Bacteroides spp.