Research group

Microbiology

Blue DNA with dark blue background.

We work on topics like patient treatment regimens, catheter design and management, and surgical instrument decontamination.

About

In collaboration with other biological science faculties, our research areas are: 

  • environmental agri-food and clinical settings of physiology 
  • antimicrobial resistance 
  • development 
  • evolution 
  • genetics
  • molecular ecology of biofilms
  • microbiome communities
  • infectious prions

 
We have recently led a successful bid by 4 leading Russell Group research institutions and a wider partnership of 14 collaborating institutions across the UK for the new National Innovation Biofilm Centre funded by: 

  • the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 
  • Innovate UK  
  • partnering companies

Research highlights

People, projects and publications

People

Professor Charles Keevil

Professor In Environmental Health Care
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Dr Chengchen Zhang PhD

Lecturer

Research interests

  • Therapeutic and biosensing platforms
  • Infectious diseases
  • Material engineering

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Daniel Kaganovich

Associate Professor of Neurobiology
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Dr Fatima Pereira

Lecturer in Molecular and Cellular Biosc

Research interests

  • Gut microbiome
  • Host-microbiota crosstalk
  • Microbiome One Health model for a healthy ecosystem

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Jeremy Webb

Professor of Microbiology

Research interests

  • Microbial biofilms and their control
  • Adaptive biology and evolution of microorganisms
  • Biofilm-associated infection

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Jo Slater-Jefferies PhD, MBA, CMgr, MCMI

CEO-National Biofilms Innovation Centre
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Dr Marc Dumont

Lecturer in Environmental Microbiology

Research interests

  • Methanotrophs and methane cycling
  • Microbial communities in soils, sediments, and aquatic systems
  • Biogeochemical cycles

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Nela Nikolic

Lecturer in Microbiology

Research interests

  • Roles of accessory genetic elements in bacterial resilience
  • Phenotypic heterogeneity and individual behaviors underlying stress adaptation in bacterial populations
  • Dynamic interactions between bacterial viruses (phages) and bacterial populations

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Rodolphe Herve

Senior Research Fellow
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Jeremy Webb
Professor of Microbiology
My research group aims to understand how biofilms develop and disperse and how they respond to environmental stresses including therapeutic compounds.