Dr Leighton Pritchard
Senior Lecturer
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Personal statement
Please visit our group website: https://sipbs-compbiol.github.io/
Our group specialises in computational biology and bioinformatics, particularly for microbial genomics, but also in humans and plants. We have interests in taxonomy and classification of microbes, and the relationships between genome evolution and the different capabilities of organisms. We aim to understand links between genome and phenotype, such as the ability to produce - or resist - antibiotics, to produce enzymes and other products of biotechological value, the responses of human and plant cells to disease and infection, and the ways in which microbial pathogens interact with and control their hosts.
We study these areas using a range of techniques including phylogenetics and phylogenomics, comparative genomics and pangenomics, and mathematical and structural modelling.
You can follow the group (@SCompBiol), or me personally (@widdowquinn) on Twitter.
Publications
- genomeRxiv and myco-genomeRxiv: a prokaryotic and a fungal web server that combine taxonomic classification with strain typing
- Mazloom Reza, Belay Kassaye, Sharma Rituraj, Johnson Hayden, Lorv Janet, Kaur Sehgeet, Sharma Parul, Brown C Titus, Pierce-Ward Tessa, Pritchard Leighton, Uehling Jessie, Grünwald Niklaus J, Heath Lenwood, Vinatzer Boris
- ASM BIG (2026)
- Write Once, Practice Often : Teaching Technical Skills with Quarto
- Feeney Morgan, Pritchard Leighton
- Learning and Teaching Day (2026)
- Carbohydrate active enzymes in Pectobacteriaceae : coevolving enzyme sets and host adaptation
- Hobbs Emma EM, Gloster Tracey M, Pritchard Leighton
- (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.08.723719
- pyani-plus : a multitool for average nucleotide identity estimation
- Pritchard Leighton, Kiepas Angelika, Cock Peter
- Microbiology Society Annual Conference (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31999287.v2
- 'What's in a name? Fit-for-purpose bacterial nomenclature' : meeting report
- Patrick Sheila, Filkins Laura, Goker Markus, Holden Nicola, Hoskisson Paul A, Kiepas Angelika, Meehan Conor, Pallen Mark, Pritchard Leighton, Suchanek Amanda L, Sutcliffe Iain, Trujillo Martha E, Tucker Nicholas, Turnbull Jake D, Butler-Wu Susan
- International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology Vol 75 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006844
- Carbohydrate active enzymes in Pectobacteriaceae : coevolving enzyme sets and host adaptation
- Hobbs Emma, Gloster Tracey, Pritchard Leighton
- ISMB/ECCB 2025 (2025)
Professional Activities
- genomeRxiv: a genome-based bacterial identification web server for both taxonomic identification and strain typing
- Contributor
- 3/8/2026
- ANI Old Method Won't Do: objective benchmarking of ANI/OGRI methods
- Speaker
- 14/4/2026
- pyANI-plus: whole genome classification of microbes with Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) and similar methods
- Contributor
- 21/7/2025
- R For Reproducible Scientific Analysis "Carpentries" workshop
- Organiser
- 16/6/2025
- Journal of Open Source Software (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 12/5/2025
- PhD Committee - Virginia Tech
- Examiner
- 31/1/2025
Projects
- Using AI to Characterise Unknown Bacteriophage in Broiler Flocks
- Devaurs, Didier (Principal Investigator) Pritchard, Leighton (CoPI) Skvortsov, Timofey (CoPI) Beltrami, Marcello (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2026 - 30-Jan-2030
- BBSRC-NSF/BIO: Collaborative Proposal: genomeRxiv: a microbial whole-genome database and diagnostic marker design resource for classification, identification, and data sharing
- Pritchard, Leighton (Principal Investigator)
- 08-Jan-2021 - 28-Jan-2025
- Targeted Innovation in the UK Seed Potato Industry to Improve Productivity and Quality
- Pritchard, Leighton (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2021
Contact
Dr
Leighton
Pritchard
Senior Lecturer
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Email: leighton.pritchard@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4962