Oliver Freichel
Andrea Ponti
Clive Allison
Siddhart Nahata
Martha Clokie
My research focuses on identifying, characterising and developing bacteriophages (viruses) that target and kill bacterial pathogens of medical relevance with the view to identifying novel antimicrobials. I have published over 60 papers in both on the fundamental and applied aspects of bacteriophages. Clearly this work has been impacted by our increasing concerns regarding antibiotic resistance because bacteriophages as natural enemies of bacteria can either be exploited as natural viruses, or they may encode novel products with antimicrobial properties.
My work is rooted in an ecological framework which I use both for virus discovery and the manipulation of microbiota associated with disease. My major focus has been on Clostridium difficile where I have isolated and characterised a large bacteriophage collection, and where I have developed in vitro, ex situ and in vivo models to assess the mechanistic interactions of phages with their bacterial hosts and to assess their therapeutic potential. I am now developing these phages as therapeutics. I also have active projects to study bacteriophages that target many other bacterial species including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus spp., Borrelia, Haemophilus and Salmonella.
In terms of my formal education and training, I obtained a BSc in Biology from Dundee University in 1996 an MSc in Biodiversity from Edinburgh University in 1997, and a PhD from Leicester in Molecular Ecology in 2001. I then did 6 years of Post-Doctoral research at the University of Warwick and in Scripps, La Jolla, San Diego. In 2007 I was appointed as a lecturer at Leicester, in 2011 a Reader and in 2016 I was promoted to Professor of Microbiology.
Mike Romanos
Mike Romanos is a co-founder and Chief Executive of Microbiotica. He has 30 years’ experience in the biotech and pharma industry and previously co-founded Crescendo Biologics which he built and led as CEO and CSO, developing a leading antibody fragment discovery platform and pipeline in oncology and inflammation. Prior to that he held global VP roles in GlaxoSmithKline R&D over 10 years, during which time he formed and led major transnational divisions which helped shape the company’s discovery platforms and pipelines across therapeutic areas and modalities. In his last role he led a transnational group of 300 staff providing genomics, target and biomarker discovery, and platform biology for R&D. Mike is highly experienced in biotech translation and commercialisation, currently serving as a Non-Exec Director of the life-sciences charity LifeArc, and previously as Translational Adviser in Biomedicine at Imperial College, Venture Partner to UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund, and committee member on the MRC’s Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme for translational academic research. Mike holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, a PhD in Molecular Virology from Imperial College, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
Rose Szabady
Sara Romano-Bertrand
I work on opportunistic bacterial pathogens from endogenous (from human-associated microbiota) or exogenous (environment) origins, involved in healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Conversely to true bacterial pathogens that accord with the Koch’s postulate, the study of opportunistic infections including HAI, require us to consider both opportunistic pathogens responsible for the infection, its natural reservoir an the microbial-associated communities. This intricate consideration of the opportunistic infection is based on the innovative concept of the “pathobiome”, which integrates the complex interactions between microorganisms and considers opportunistic bacteria within its microbial community, within its hosts and its environment, in the pathologic context, in order to explain the occurrence of the infection.
