,(1).jpg)
Dr Blanca Perez-Sepulveda is a postdoctoral research associate within the Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences. This year she was selected from hundreds of applicants to appear in Parliament as one of the finalists of the STEM for Britain 2022 awards, a poster competition in the House of Commons involving approximately 120 early stage or early career researchers. We spoke to Dr Blanca about her research and the STEM for Britain 2022 awards.
Please introduce yourself.
I am a Molecular Microbiologist working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Jay Hinton’s lab. I hold a B.Sc and M.Sc (Mres) in Biochemistry from the University of Chile. I moved to the UK to complete PhD at the University of Warwick (funded by a Chancellor's International scholarship), studying the molecular mechanisms of phage resistance of marine Synechococcus (awarded best PhD thesis 2016). In 2016, I started as a postdoc at the University of Liverpool with Prof Jay Hinton on the molecular mechanisms of invasive Salmonella, also leading the “10,000 Salmonella Genomes project”. My University profile can be found here.
What's the background of your research?
I work on the molecular mechanisms and environmental reservoirs of invasive Salmonella & their phages. Non-typhoidal Salmonella are pathogenic bacteria widely associated with gastroenteritis in humans, a zoonotic disease that is linked to the industrialisation of food production. However, new lineages of invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis have recently been found to be killing about 77,000 people each year worldwide due to bloodstream infection, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Because these novel iNTS lineages target immunocompromised individuals and are multidrug-resistant, they represent a dangerous public health problem. My work aims at understanding the molecular mechanisms of virulence and epidemiology of iNTS, by using phenotypic, genomic, and transcriptomic characterisation under infection-relevant conditions. I also work on bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) capable killing iNTS.
What is STEM for Britain and why is it important?
STEM for BRITAIN is a national poster competition for early career researchers held at the House of Commons. It is run by the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee in collaboration with professional societies, such as the Royal Society of Biology. This is a unique opportunity for researchers to discuss our latest work with MPs. I was shortlisted as part of the Biological and Biomedical sciences session, where I presented my poster to professional and academic experts, as well as MPs, and interacted with colleagues from other research institutes in the UK. I also had the chance to meet my MPs and explain the details of my research and the potential impact for our community.
In order of importance, what are your key findings in layman's terms?
The work I presented was on “Developing a different toolbox: viruses that kill antibiotic-resistant Salmonella”. We built a collection of 32 unique bacteriophages (viruses that kill bacteria), and this study represents the first exploration of the potential for bacteriophages to target antibiotic-resistant Salmonella responsible for bloodstream infections. We aim that our bacteriophage collection could be used in both clinical and food preparation settings.
This work was a collaboration led by me, with scientists from the University of Liverpool, the University of Malawi, and Durham University, and it was published last year in the journal Viruses