Background I recently graduated from the University of Cambridge, having completed a degree in Natural Sciences, specialising in Pharmacology. Throughout my undergraduate degree, antimicrobial resistance has always interested me, particularly when completing a literature review on the potential use of phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics. Additionally, during my final year I completed a research project on MsbA, a multidrug transporter that effluxes drugs and helps to synthesise the plasma membrane of gram-negative bacteria. These projects drew me to the MSc in Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Sheffield, allowing me to pursue my primary interests of infectious disease, resistance, and immunology. I have a keen interest in developing novel therapies for bacterial infections to reduce the development of resistance, and on completion of this course, I intend to complete a PhD to further my research skills and contribute to the ‘one health’ goal to overcome antimicrobial resistance.
Florey Research Project
Development of tools to study E. cecorum cell surface recognition by bacteriophages
I am currently undertaking a research project in the Mesnage lab investigating phage recognition of E. cecorum. E. cecorum is an emerging poultry pathogen, capable of causing spondylitis. Strains of E. cecorum are highly antibiotic resistant However, we used the Comprehensive Antimicrobial Resistance Database to annotate the genomes of different isolates, demonstrating that most of this resistance couldn’t be explained by resistance cassettes. This suggests that resistance is either due to random point mutations or novel resistance mechanisms.
Therefore, we are investigating how bacteriophages interact with the cell surface of E. cecorum, potentially allowing phage therapy to be used as an alternative to these antibiotics. No phages specific to E. cecorum have been described. As such, to isolate specific phages, we are screening environmental samples against known strains of E. cecorum. Any that produce plaques have been picked and undergone continuous rounds of reinfections, followed by plate lysates to produce high concentration titres. The next steps in this project will therefore be to annotate the genomes with any point mutations within the antibiotic targets, and to complete synergy tests research any synergy between antibiotics commonly used to treat E. cecorum infections within the poultry industry.