Bio

Sarah is a consultant paediatrician specializing in paediatric infectious disease. She works on the interactions between infection and nutrition in children with a particular focus on iron and the iron-regulating hormone, hepcidin. Sarah's PhD was based in The Gambia and at LSHTM where she investigated the role of iron-regulating genes in influencing susceptibility to malaria-related anemia. Sarah joined the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in 2004 and studied predictors of mortality in severely malnourished children, with an emphasis on the role of iron in relation to bacterial infection. Sarah returned to the UK in 2006 to complete her general paediatric and paediatric infectious disease training in Newcastle and Oxford. Sarah worked as a clinical lecturer in paediatrics and a locum consultant paediatrician in the Department of Paediatrics at Oxford University Hospitals before returning to Kilifi in April 2013. Sarah was awarded a Wellcome Career Development Award in 2021, working on Mendelian Randomization approaches to study the impact of micronutrients on outcomes relevant to public health

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Current Work

She works on the interactions between infection and nutrition in children with a particular focus on iron and the iron-regulating hormone, hepcidin.

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Recent publications

OSBPL11 is an African-specific locus associated with 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and cardiometabolic health.
Mogire, R. M., Muriuki, J. M., Bayimenye, R. F., Mentzer, A. J., Chong, A., Gouveia, M. H., Bentley, A. R., Band, G., King'ori, P., Mitchell, R., Webb, E. L., Sengupta, D., Ekunwe, L., Ndungu, F. M., Morovat, A., Macharia, A. W., Cutland, C. L., Hemani, G., Sirima, S. B., Ramsay, M., Figueiredo, C. A., Prentice, A. M., Madhi, S. A., Raffield, L. M., Sandhu, M. S., Bejon, P., Smith, G. D., Elliott, A. M., Williams, T. N., Rotimi, C., Bourne, C. R., Burgett, A., Adeyemo, A., Atkinson, S. H.
medRxiv, (2025). :

Universal iron supplementation: the best strategy to tackle childhood anaemia in malaria-endemic countries?.
Karthikappallil, R., Atkinson, S. H.
Wellcome Open Res, (2023). 8:345

Biology of Anemia: A Public Health Perspective.
Brittenham, G. M., Moir-Meyer, G., Abuga, K. M., Datta Mitra, A., Cerami, C., Green, R., Pasricha, S. R., Atkinson, S. H.
J Nutr, (2023). S0022-3166:72542-X

Severe anaemia, iron deficiency, and susceptibility to invasive bacterial infections.
Abuga, K. M., Nairz, M., MacLennan, C. A., Atkinson, S. H.
Wellcome Open Res, (2023). 8:48

Availability of Ferritin-Bound Iron to Enterobacteriaceae.
Gehrer, C. M., Hoffmann, A., Hilbe, R., Grubwieser, P., Mitterstiller, A. M., Talasz, H., Fang, F. C., Meyron-Holtz, E. G., Atkinson, S. H., Weiss, G., Nairz, M.
Int J Mol Sci, (2022). 23:13087