Meet the scientists!

We sequence the genomes of bacterial pathogens to learn about how they have evolved, how they cause disease, and how they have spread around the world. We work on organisms that cause diseases like typhoid fever, tuberculosis, meningitis, cholera, chlamydia and pneumonia, and on organisms that cause disease in hospitals, like  MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

We can see from our analyses that these diseases move rapidly around the world, spread by humans, and how they can respond quickly to become resistant to antibiotics and vaccines. We can see which bacterial genes are important to cause disease in humans and other animals. We can also use data on a very fine level to track outbreaks and see precisely the transmission of bacteria between people.

Coffee. Read and deal with e-mail. Talk to people in my group about the work they are doing and the latest data they have. Read and comment on scientific papers from my group and collaborators that we are preparing for publication. Read and criticise papers from other groups that have been sent to me to review and criticise before publication. Go to seminars from other scientists talking about their work. Also, unfortunately, sitting on the committees that keep the Institute working.

Although this is a typical day at work, I am often away at scientific conferences and meetings, listening to the  latest research and catching up with collaborators from across the world.

We have been sequencing the genomes of bacteria for around fifteen years, with each improvement in the technology allowing us to broaden our research and look deeper into the biology of these pathogens.