Research
Molecular microbial ecology and pathogens in the environment.
Application of molecular biological techniques to the analysis of microbial activity in the environment. Latterly, this has included the application of metagenomics to detection and monitoring of viruses in aquatic water courses. The research was largely funded by NERC, and collaborators included earth scientists and geochemists at Liverpool and Plymouth universities, and microbiologists at Bangor University.
Development of Microbial Source Tracking (MST) approaches to the monitoring of water quality in relation to urbanization in China, in collaboration with Dr. Sekar Raju at XJTLU in Suzhou.
Shigatoxigenic (Stx) bacteriophage: molecular biology and epidemiology. Shigatoxigenic bacteria, including E.coli 0157, are particularly virulent due primarily to the production of a toxin that is encoded by bacteriophage. We are interested in the molecular biological mechanisms underlying the infection process (supported by BBSRC) and the role of these bacteriophage in survival and spread of the toxin genes in the farm environment, as cattle are the principal reservoir of shigatoxigenic E.coli.
Histoplasmosis in horses: the development of molecular methods applicable in the developing world for the diagnosis of epizootic lymphangitis in working equids, suppported primarily by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship to Dr. Claire Scantlebury.
Research grants
Examining the presence and clinical presentation of Histoplasmosis among equids from West Africa
SOCIETY FOR APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY (UK)
June 2017 - July 2017
2014 allocation - Wellcome ISSF non clinical fellowships
WELLCOME TRUST (UK)
May 2015 - October 2018
Development of rapid diagnostic procedures for epizootic lymphangitis in horses
SOCIETY FOR APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY (UK)
June 2015 - August 2015
New approaches for the quantitative detection of human pathogenic viruses within the freshwater-marine continuum
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
March 2016 - December 2018
Metagenomics of cellulose degrading communities
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
July 2010 - December 2013
Molecular biological characterisation of the anaerobic microbial community that drives cellulose decomposition in lake systems.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
June 2004 - May 2007
Aquatic microbial metagenomes and biogeochemical cycles.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
May 2005 - December 2008
The genotypic and phenotypic impacts of Shiga toxin encoding bacteriophage interactions with their host cells: consequences for food borne zoonoses
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
August 2011 - November 2014
Verocytotoxin-encoding bacteriophages - ecology and role in disease (Bacteriophage).
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (UK)
April 2004 - December 2009
Molecular characterisation of the processes responsible for toxigenic conversion of E.coli by VT-bacteriophages.
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
August 2004 - August 2007
Molecular diagnosis of histoplasmosis in Ethiopian horses
SOCIETY FOR APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY (UK)
June 2014 - August 2014
Research collaborations
University of Bangor
New approaches for the quantitative detection of human pathogenic viruses within the freshwater-marine continuum
http://www.viraqua.uk/