Team

Dr Ruben Sakrabani

I am a soil chemist with a research interest in soil fertility and use of organic amendments to meet crop nutrient requirements and improve soil health. Within the organic amendments, livestock manure, biosolids and others may contain residual antibiotic active ingredients and can be transferred to soil in an agricultural context when these are applied. Some parameters in soil such as heavy metals can form stable complexes that can contribute towards persistence of AMR in soil. I am keen to explore how these factors can be assessed and controlled to minimise AMR in the environment. With the increase in fertiliser prices and the growing concern in preserving soil health and carbon sequestration, application of organic amendments is getting more popular. However we need a balanced approach to ensure that this practice is sustained and any potential negative impacts can be mitigated. 

Professor Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas

Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas is a Professor in Microfluidic Engineering in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. She holds a research MSc degree in micro and nanotechnologies from the Technical University of Lille (France), and an MSc degree from the Institut Superieur de l’Electronique et du Numerique (Brest-Lille, France). She was awarded a PhD at Heriot-Watt in July 2010. This study involved the development of a microfluidic chip for blood plasma extraction for detection of cell-free nucleic acids (DNA, RNA). In 2012 she was awarded a five year Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship to develop microfluidic systems for prenatal diagnostics. In 2014 she was elected as a member of EPSRC Early Career forum in Manufacturing Research and entered the Young Academy of Scotland. In 2018 she was awarded a £1M EPSRC Healthcare Technology Challenge Award to develop total pre-analytical systems for cfDNA extraction at the point-of-need. Using this award and pre-commercialisation funding from Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spin Out programme she created with her team CNASafe, and automated platform and patented fluidic cartridge for cfDNA extraction. This technology is now under clinical pilot for use in an integrated workflow (iSEP-SEQ) for the identification of sepsis-causing pathogens.

Professor Pantelis Georgiou

Pantelis Georgiou currently holds the position of Professor of Biomedical Electronics at Imperial College London within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He is the head of the Bio-inspired Metabolic and Infection Technology Laboratory in the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology; a multi-disciplinary group that invents, develops and demonstrates advanced micro-devices to meet global challenges in biomedical science and healthcare. His research includes ultra-low power micro-electronics, bio-inspired circuits and systems, lab-on-chip technology and application of micro-electronic technology to create novel medical devices. Application areas of his research include new technologies for treatment of diabetes such as the artificial pancreas, novel Lab-on-Chip technology for genomics and diagnostics targeted towards infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and wearable technologies for rehabilitation of chronic conditions. 
Prof. Georgiou graduated with a 1st Class Honours MEng Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2004 and Ph.D. degree in 2008 both from Imperial College London. He then joined the Institute of Biomedical Engineering as Research Associate until 2010, when he was appointed Head of the Bio-inspired Metabolic Technology Laboratory. In 2011, he joined the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, where he currently holds an academic faculty position. He has made significant contributions to the development of integrated chemical-sensing systems in CMOS for Lab-on-Chip applications. He has pioneered the development of the Ion-Sensitive Field Effect Transistor, an integrated pH sensor which is currently being used in next generation DNA sequencing machines and rapid diagnostic systems for detection of infectious diseases. Prof. Georgiou is a senior member of the IEEE and IET and Chair of the IEEE BioCAS TC and serves on Sensory Systems technical committee of the IEEE CAS Society. He is an associate editor of the IEEE Sensors and TBioCAS journals. In 2013 he was awarded the IET Mike Sergeant Achievement Medal for his outstanding contributions to engineering and development of the bio-inspired artificial pancreas. In 2017, he was also awarded the IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement award. He is also on the IEEE Sensors council as a member at large and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He is Co-founder and CEO of ProtonDx, commercialising technologies for rapid diagnostics for infectious diseases.

Dr Leon Barron

Leon Barron received both a BSc in Analytical Science (2001) and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry (2005) from Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. He then pursued his postdoctoral research for a further four years there and at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research developing novel approaches to monitoring environmental contaminants in water and soil. He moved to King’s College London as a Lecturer (in 2009) and then Senior Lecturer (in 2015) in Forensic Science, where he led the Environmental & Forensic Chemistry group for 11 years. In 2020, he moved to Imperial College London as a Senior Lecturer in Analytical & Environmental Sciences. He has published >75 peer-reviewed articles in the fields of analytical chemistry, environmental pollution, ecotoxicology and forensic science. He sits on the editorial board of Science & Justice, Journal of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences and from 2011-2014 was its Editor in Chief. He regularly acts as a peer-reviewer for several internationally reputed analytical journals. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He also sits on the Analytical Division Council and the Separation Science interest group committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry, as well as the London Biological Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group committee.

Key Leadership Roles:

Emerging Chemical Contaminants Team lead within the Environmental Research Group 

The aim of the Emerging Chemical Contaminants team is to further our understanding of the sources, risks and impacts existing, emerging and new chemical contaminants on environmental and public health. His projects have mainly focussed on pharmaceuticals, personal care products, illicit drugs, pesticides, disinfectant by-products, security-related substances (e.g., CB and E) and industrial chemicals. His work spans across all environmental spheres (soil, water, air and biological materials).

Research Interests:
Analytical Science: His particular strength lies in trace environmental analysis and has core expertise in the separation sciences (e.g. LC, IC, GC, IMS and CE), advanced sampling/sample preparation (e.g. including on/offline SPE, passive sampling, pressurised liquid extraction), high and low resolution (tandem) mass spectrometry and data mining/computational modelling (e.g., machine learning and multivariate analysis for large datasets). 

Chemical Risk Assessment: He actively researches in understanding the breadth, sources and fate of and as well as phenotypic and molecular level toxicological effects on biota. He is particularly interested in New Approach Methods (NAMs) including novel predictive in silico and in vitro tools for chemical hazard and risk assessment. This includes performing exposure-based and machine-learning enhanced metabolomics and lipidomics to understand molecular-level effects, and mainly in terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates.

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology: Near real-time population-level health assessment through the wastewater analysis. His team has been a member of the Sewage analysis CORE Group since 2011 contributing to knowledge of the health of ~30 countries and 90 cities globally. For example, we have provided data for London annually to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs & Drug Addiction on illicit drug use in the EU.

Early Threat Warning and ‘Environmental Forensics’: He focuses on identifying chemical or physical evidence that may indicate illegal activity including contact or clandestine manufacturing of illicit substances, chemical pollution or identifying imminent threats to public safety. With a significant track record in forensic science, he specialises in identifying trace chemical signatures in forensic evidence types such as fingermarks, biological materials, as well as environmental matrices including early detection of explosives and new chemical/biological contaminants and hazards in the environment. He also led a major project on developing fit for purpose technologies for recovering forensic evidence from poached ivory which is now in use in >40 countries globally.

Dr Noah Fongwen

Noah Fongwen is a Clinical Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Head of Diagnostic Access at Africa CDC. He is a global health expert skilled in advanced research methods, implementation science, economic evaluation of complex public health interventions, and point-of-care technologies. He has expertise in clinical medicine, laboratory medicine, public health, and health policy. He has been a project leader/coordinator in several projects, including the Wellcome Trust-funded international project to explore a new regulatory policy framework to accelerate access to diagnostics. At the Africa CDC, he leads diagnostics development and evaluation, streamlining regulatory access, post-marketing surveillance, policy development, and community uptake. Before joining the London School and Africa CDC, he worked as a medical officer and public health specialist for the Ministry of Public Health in Cameroon. During this period, he led the implementation of quality assurance for HIV tests and community sensitization for chronic diseases and supported the expanded program for immunization.
As head of access at Africa CDC, he has contributed significantly to developing policy documents such as the Africa CDC biobanking manual and the manual for multi-disease surveillance in Africa. He is working with Prof Rosanna Peeling and Prof David Heymann to pilot multi-disease surveillance using diagnostics at different health system levels. As the head of innovation at the Africa CDC innovation hub, he is leading a systemic review and continent-wide project to explore the role of telephone hotlines in outbreak response. This project will set up a network of telephone hotlines that can be leveraged to support response to outbreaks.
He has also been a WHO consultant in developing Target Product Profiles(TPPs) for diagnostics for NTDs such as Dengue, Yaws, and Mycetoma. He is also the WHO TDR Global coordinator for decentralizing TDR Global activities. He has more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, including book chapters and editorials.

Professor Susana Campino

I completed my PhD at the University of Umea, Sweden on the “Genetic analysis of murine malaria”. In 2004, I was awarded a Marie Curie Post Doc fellowship to work on “Genetic determinants of human severe malaria” at the University of Oxford. In 2007, I moved to The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute to investigate the worldwide genetic diversity of the malaria parasites Plasmodium falciparum. I had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in several endemic regions (e.g. Thailand, Cambodia, Burkina Faso). This post also gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge on whole genome sequencing analysis and population genetics. I moved to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2015 to work on evolution of malaria parasite and to develop genetic barcodes for malaria surveillance. I am also involved in projects related to the genetic diversity of Mycobacteria tuberculosis and Zika virus.

Dr Nichola Hawkins

Nichola’s research focuses on the evolutionary biology of plant pathogens, and how we can develop more durable crop disease control strategies against ever-evolving pathogen populations. This includes factors driving the evolution of fungicide resistance, and how these will apply to future crop protection measures, in pathogens including Zymoseptoria tritici which causes the major wheat disease Septoria leaf blotch. She is developing new methods for studying the evolution of fungicide resistance in the lab, in order to more accurately predict the risk of control failure in the field, to better inform resistance management guidelines and the development of lower-risk products in future.
Her current research project (April 2022-205) titled ‘Predicting the durability and resistance risk of crop protection measures through experimental evolution of plant pathogens’ is funded by the BBSRC Discovery Fellowship.

Professor Neil Boonham

Neil is a Professor at the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Innovation at Newcastle University. He has a strong interest in AMR research in particular fungicide resistance and its development in crop pests. Neil has a background in plant virology and molecular biology and in recent years has focused on the application of post-genomic technologies to provide applied solutions to detection problems in agricultural and environmental analysis. In the agricultural and biosecurity work the research is focused on development of targeted techniques for in-field and automated detection of pathogens. This encompasses development of diagnostic techniques to enable rapid decision making in the agri-food supply chain to the automated measurement of airborne inoculum; the goal is to provide end users with data enabling them to make more timely and effective management decisions. In addition the use of next generation sequencing for detection and characterisation of the causal agents of disease and virus discovery through to investigating the impact microbial communities have in modulating disease symptoms and severity.
Neil maintains a keen interest in Virology in particular the interaction between viruses and plant hosts, the evolution of virus species and the characterisation of persistent viruses in plants. Neil has authored more than 100 peer reviewed publications and is an editor for the Journal of Virological Methods and a special associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. Neil regularly provides keynote and plenary lectures at international conferences and lectures at undergraduate and masters degree courses at the Universities of Nottingham, Leeds and Harper Adams.

Dr David Wareham

David Wareham qualified (MBBS) from the London Hospital Medical College in 1994 and trained in general medicine in East London and Essex before specialist training in Medical Microbiology in North East Thames (FRCPath). He was awarded a Clinical Training Fellowship to study aspects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenicity at Queen Mary University in 2002 and was appointed as Senior Clinical Lecturer in Microbiology in July 2005 (PhD). He is an Honorary Consultant Microbiologist at Barts Health, Newham University and Homerton NHS Trusts where he is responsible for aspects of intensive care microbiology. His current research interests include the molecular epidemiology, mechanisms of resistance and pathogenicity of Gram-negative nosocomial pathogens. 

Dr James Bradley

James is a Senior Lecturer at the Queen Mary University, London. He earned his BSc in Physical Geography from the University of Bristol in 2011. He completed a PhD in Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol in 2016. James was then awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Centre for Dark Energy  Biosphere Investigations, at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (2016-2018), and was awarded a second fellowship from the Deep Carbon Observatory, also held at the University of Southern California (2018-2019). James also holds a Humboldt Fellowship at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam.  In 2019 James was appointed as a Lecturer (Assistant-Professor) in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021.
He has strong interest in AMR in particular in the co-evolution of microorganisms and their environment – with a focus on the fast-changing polar regions.

Professor Gerd Wagner

Professor Wagner joined Queen’s University in October 2019 from King’s College London, where he was a founding member of the new Department of Chemistry.His research is focussed on the development of chemical tools to address fundamental challenges in biology, biotechnology and medicine. He is particularly interested in the role of complex glycans and carbohydrates in infection, inflammation and cancer. Current research themes are concerned with:
(1) Covalent inhibitors and probes to study antimicrobial resistance
(2) Chemical glycoengineering of biopharmaceuticals
(3) Carbohydrate-active enzymes as targets for drug discovery

Dr Paolo Bertoncello

Paolo Bertoncello graduated in 1997 with a MSc. in Industrial Chemistry, followed by a PhD in Biophysics at the University of Genoa in 2007. After postdoctoral experience at the University of Texas at Austin he moved to the University of Warwick under a Marie Curie Fellowship. Then, he moved to Dublin City University under a Marie Curie Reintegration grant. In 2010 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Swansea University and promoted Associate Professor in 2016. He’s author of 50+ publications (h-index 26; 2300+ citations). His main research interests are the use of functionalised nanomaterials as electrochemical and electrochemiluminescence-based sensors applied to health (early detection of cancer, antimicrobial resistance) and environmental monitoring. He has also interest on electrocatalysis applied to energy (hydrogen evolution and oxygen reduction reactions). His worked is funded by the EPSRC and Cancer Research UK.

Biography:

• MSc. Industrial Chemistry (University Ca’ Foscari, Italy) 1997
• PDRA (UT Austin, US) 2003-2004
• PhD Biophysics (University of Genoa, Italy) 2003
• Marie Curie RTN Fellow (University of Warwick, UK) 2004-2005
• Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow (University of Warwick, UK) 2005-2007
• Marie Curie Reintegration Grant Fellow (DCU, Ireland) 2007-2010
• Senior Lecturer Chemical Engineering (Swansea University, UK) 2010-2016
• Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering (Swansea University, UK) 2016-present

Professor Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern

The principal research interests of our group fall into the three interrelated research areas of environmental, analytical and water sciences. We work in the area of water quality and novel technologies used to decrease contamination of water. Our recent interests focus on water fingerprinting to inform the state of the environment and public health.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Emerging micropollutants in the environment
Emerging environmental contaminants including pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, personal care products and endocrine disruptors are a group of compounds without well understood occurrence, fate and effects in the environment and human  health but with the potential to cause such effects. Our research concentrates on identifying new micropollutants in environmental matrices, understanding their fate in the environment and identifying their possible effects on humans and the environment. This includes the development of new analytical methodology primarily utilising liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to identify and quantify micropollutants and their transformation products at low ppt levels.
Chiral pollutants
The enantiomers of chiral compounds can differ in interactions with chiral environments such as enzymes in the body. Therefore in biological systems they can be recognised as two different substances that elicit different responses: one enantiomer of the same drug may produce the desired therapeutic activity, while the other may be inactive or even toxic. The ratio of active/inactive enantiomer of the chiral drug can change significantly after its administration, metabolism in and excretion from the body. It can be subsequently altered during biological wastewater treatment and when the drug is already present in the environment. Biological processes can lead to stereoselective enrichment or depletion of enantiomeric composition of chiral drugs. Therefore the very same drug might reveal different activity and toxicity and this will depend on its origin and exposure to several factors governing its fate in the environment.
Existing reports on the presence and fate of pharmacologically active compounds, due to their non-enantioselective analysis, do not tackle the problem of their chirality. As a result, current understanding of environmental fate and effects of chiral drugs is limited, might be inaccurate and misleading, as it incorrectly assumes that enantiomers have identical environmental behaviour and toxicity. Therefore to understand and predict the mechanisms governing the fate of chiral drugs, their possible toxicity and impact on the environment, determination of enantiomeric composition of chiral drugs in environmental matrices is essential and constitutes a vital part of our research. This involves also the development of analytical methods capable of enantiomeric separation of chiral drugs and their application in environmental context.
Antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance
PUBLIC HEALTH
Rapid assessment of public health is essential for the prevention, control or mitigation of exposure risks (e.g. to chemical contaminants or pathogenic organisms) and for improving health. There is growing, albeit still limited, evidence of cause – effect association between man-made chemicals present in industrial and household products, often leaching into the environment, and public health outcomes. These include poor air quality linked with higher prevalence of asthma in urban populations, and presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in household products linked with diabetics or infertility. Strategies to control and regulate anthropogenic chemicals are limited due to gaps in evidence resulting from limited risk assessment methods. More efficient approaches are needed to identify cause-effect linkages between the environment and human health. Attempts to link environmental stressors with health effects are currently undertaken via molecular epidemiology and human biomonitoring. However, the limitations of molecular epidemiology, due to logistical difficulties and high cost, are the restricted size of study groups and inability to gather comprehensive information on combined spatiotemporal exposure to mixtures of stressors and their effects. There is therefore a need for an evidence-based public health diagnostics and risk prediction system, which will collate long-term comprehensive, spatiotemporal datasets on public health status and trigger rapid response from regulatory and public health sectors with the aim of disease prevention and environmental health promotion. This system, if operated in real-time and if linked with timely response systems, could allow public health threats to be rapidly identified, at low cost, and instantly dealt with, reducing the global burden on public health. Wastewater fingerprinting or wastewater-based epidemiology provides a timely solution. Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) currently informs worldwide illicit drug use trends. WBE has also been applied to estimate public exposure to lifestyle chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, household contaminants as well as food contaminants. WBE has revolutionised population health studies, especially in the context of the COVID pandemics. Our research focusses on the development and application of WBE tools with an aim of building early warning systems for environmental and public health. We are currently focussing on biochemical mining of wastewater for markers of community-wide intake of wide-ranging harmful chemicals, pathogenic organisms as well as resulting effects.
WATER TREATMENT
Catalytic ozonation in water treatment
Ozone, due to its high oxidation and disinfection potential, has received much attention in water treatment technology. It is applied in order to improve taste and colour as well as to remove the organic and inorganic compounds in water. Despite the several advantages of using ozone, it has a few disadvantages which limit its application. The main ones are: relatively low solubility and stability in water. Because of both the high cost of ozone production and only partial oxidation of organic compounds present in water, the application of ozonation might not be feasible from an economic point of view. Advanced oxidation processes such as O3/H2O2, UV/O3, UV/H2O2, TiO2/UV, Fenton’s reagents and catalytic ozonation involve the generation of hydroxyl radicals, which are active oxidative species. However, their reactions are not selective and therefore more likely to be hindered by competitive reactions. For that reason, it is also desirable to investigate new methods based on molecular ozone reactions, which allow for both better ozone dissolution and stability in water due to the presence of non-polar materials such as: non-polar fluorinated hydrocarbon solvent or perfluorinated alumina. We focus on investigating the application of metal oxides and zeolites as heterogeneous catalysts for the ozonation of common water micropollutants.
Bioremediation
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
We develop methods utilising primarily chromatographic techniques and mass spectrometry aiming at environmental and epidemiology applications. We are also interested in new approaches to sample preparation.

Professor Mark Bradley

Based at Queen Mary University of London, Professor Mark Bradley is a chemist by training but with a strong interdisciplinary ethos and translational mind set (for example he spent two years (1989-1991) at Harvard Medical School working the area of protein engineering and site directed mutagenesis). He began his academic career in 1992 at the University of Southampton as a Royal Society University Research Fellow, where he worked in the area of Combinatorial Chemistry, co-founding Ilika Technologies. He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2005 and over the years he was co-founder of Edinburgh Molecular Imaging, DestiNA Genomics and most recently BioCaptiva. He has published some 400 papers and reviews and 25 patents, is an ERC Advanced grant awardee and has won numerous prizes and awards e.g. Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), 2019 RSC Interdisciplinary prize and the University of Edinburgh Chancellors Award.
He is the formal PI on the EPSRC supported InLighenUs project and heads the Edinburgh team that encompasses areas of detectors, chemistry and engagement in its broadest senses.

Professor Robert Henderson

Robert Henderson worked for 16 years at CSEM, VLSI Vision Ltd and ST Microelectronics designing image sensors for mobile phone applications before joining the University of Edinburgh in 2005 as an academic. He was promoted to a Professorship of Electronic Imaging at the University of Edinburgh in 2017 and is arguably one of the worlds’ greatest CMOS SPAD architects. He was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his world leading work on SPAD detectors, is Co-I on the £5.3M “Single Photons – Expanding the Spectrum (SPEXS) Programme Grant and has presented his work at all the worlds’ leading international CMSO SPAD meetings with a suite of patents to his name. He developed some of the world’s first SPAD detectors in nanometer CMOS technology. He recently co-founded the company Sense Photonics with his sensors the basis of the company’s LIDAR products. 

Professor Gordon Ramage

Gordon Ramage is a Professor at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing at the University of Glasgow. He is a world leading international expert in clinical biofilm infections, with a particular focus on fungus (yeasts and moulds). His group undertakes range of projects in the oral cavity and beyond, investigating complex inter kingdom biofilm infections and understanding more effective ways to diagnose and treat these infections. His group also has an interest in controlling moulds and yeasts on surfaces within the hospital and built environment. His group has extensive experience of microbiome and mycobiome analysis, and using these data to inform the development of biofilm models systems to test new and established antimicrobials (antifungals, antibiotics, antiseptics, disinfectants and novels). Prof Ramage has over 25 years experience in clinical microbiology and has a longstanding working relationship with the commercial partners:
– GlaxoSmithKline
– Unilever
– Gilead Sciences
– BluTest Laboratories
Key current funded projects
* Plasma activated antimicrobial systems for managing wound infection (EPSRC)
* OMICs approaches to oral health (BBSRC)
* Targeted endolysin treatment of bacterial vaginosis (Innovate UK, CCBio and GCU)
* Integrated Analysis Toolkit for Personalised Oral Health Care (Haleon – formerly GSK Consumer Healthcare)
* Investigating interkingdom biofilm interactions in oral & systemic disease (various) 
Gordon graduated from Edinburgh University with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Medical Microbiology in 1996. He then received a Ph.D. from the Queen’s University of Belfast in prosthetic joint infection in 1999. He subsequently undertook two postdoctoral research positions over a 4 year period (2000-2003), focusing on fungal and bacterial biofilm infections at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (USA) and the University of Calgary (Canada). In 2004 he returned to the UK and was appointed as a Lecturer in Microbiology at Glasgow Caledonian University prior to taking up a position of Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at the University of Glasgow Dental School in 2007. Gordon has been the head of Biological and Medical Sciences and the lead for the Infection and Immunity Research Group since 2009. Gordon received his Personal Chair in 2012 and was promoted to Professor of Medical Microbiology. His a Fellow of Royal College of Pathoologists (FRCPath), and is currently the Chair of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID) Study Group for Biofilms (ESGB) and a Fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (FECMM). He is an honorary member of the British Society for Medical Mycology (BSMM) and acts as a consultant and key opinion leader for a number of commercial partners. 

Dr Timothy Felton

Timothy Felton is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Immunology, Immunity to Infection and Respiratory Medicine, University of Manchester. He is also the Consultant in Intensive Care and Respiratory Medicine at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and Director of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s Diagnostics and Technology Accelerator (DiTA).  He qualified in medicine in 1999 at the University of Nottingham and undertook his training in Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine in the North West of England and in Sydney, Australia.  He completed an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship and was awarded his PhD in anti-infective pharmacology by The University of Manchester in 2014. His research interests include precision management (otherwise known as antimicrobial stewardship) in patients with respiratory infection, antimicrobial resistance, clinical trials to optimise diagnosis and treatment in infection and pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (including population PK modelling). He has particular expertise related to optimising antimicrobial drug regimens to suppress emergence of anti-microbial resistance.   He is involved in a number of academic and commercial clinical trials in critically ill patients with severe infections. He is a member of The Intensive Care Society, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, The British Thoracic Society, and European Respiratory Society.  Dr Felton has received £10M of external grant funding over the last 5 years. Dr Felton currently lead the respiratory infection programme of the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, co-chairs the Antimicrobial Resistance Group within Greater Manchester Intergrated Care System and recently worked as an external advisor to NICE and NHS England on the novel subscription model for antibiotics (“Models for the evaluation and purchase of antimicrobials”). 

Professor Kim Hardie

Dr Hardie’s main interest is in how bacteria use secreted proteins such as toxins to help them cause infections. This includes how the bacteria transport and regulate the proteins, and how the proteins function. In particular, she is interested in how these weapons are deployed and the role they play in the complex communities that bacteria form on surfaces (biofilms). This is particularly important as biofilms serve as reservoirs for infection and aid the infection process. In addition, bacteria in biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics, and I am interested in how the antimicrobials penetrate biofilms and how individual bacteria respond as they come in contact with the antimicrobials. The hope is that we will uncover novel antimicrobial targets that are unlikely to trigger the development of antimicrobial resistance, and thereby increase our repertoire of therapies and preventions to curb bacterial infections. Dr Hardie can comment on bacterial infections and hygiene e.g. hand washing to prevent the transmission of bacteria and new antimicrobial strategies. For more information about Dr Hardie’s work, see her University webpage. Previous media experience has included an appearance on BBC East Midlands Today, taking part in radio interviews and acting as an expert commentator for a Daily Mail piece about superbugs.
Media appearances:

• October 2016: Interview on BBC World service ‘The Inquiry’ about antimicrobial resistance
• March 2013: Interview on BBC radio Nottingham, Mark Dennison show time slot 55 min to 1 h 15, discussion about antibiotic resistance
• May 2012: Interview on BBC radio Nottingham, Mark Dennison show time slot 1 h 21 min to 1 h 46, live demonstration of hand hygiene
• November 2011: Interview on BBC radio Nottingham, Andy Whitakker 8/11/11 show time slot 1 h 38 min to 1 h 42 min 30 seconds, talking about handkerchiefs and germ spreading
• July 10th 2011: Provided background information for full page article on Superbugs in Mail on Sunday written by Alice Grebot
• April 18th 2011: Provided expert opinion on BBC Radio Nottingham morning show for Frances Finn discussing recent paper on extended beta lactamases in superbugs (Walsh et al. Lancet Infect Dis 2011). Two slots separated by music starting at 2 hour 15 mins • February 2nd 2011
• Provided expert opinion on BBC Radio Nottingham morning show for Frances Finn ‘How dirty is your cash?’
• July 2010: Interview with Ashley about Glo-yo for Heart 106 Radio

Consultancy and Research:  Dr Hardie is happy to explore opportunities to undertake consultancy and research work with external organisations.

Dr Sidahmed Abayzeed

Sidahmed is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Imaging and Sensing. Since September 2022, he has been a member of the Electric and Electronic Engineering Department, University of Nottingham. Before assuming this role, Sidahmed was an independent Nottingham Research Fellow from 2019 to 2022.
Sidahmed obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Nottingham in 2016. Shortly after that, he was awarded EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship at the Faculty of Engineering, which allowed him to further explore and test new concepts in impedance microscopy, a novel technology for label-free characterization of biological samples. 
Following the completion of his Doctoral Prize Fellowship, Sidahmed was awarded a prestigious Nottingham Research Fellowship in 2019. This fellowship recognized his expertise and potential, providing him with the opportunity to set up and lead cutting-edge research in the field of bioelectrical imaging and sensing. As part of this fellowship, Sidahmed focused on advancing the field by developing a new generation of impedance micro-spectroscopy technology. This innovative tool aims to deepen our understanding of how living systems generate and conduct electrical signals, with potential of wide-range applications in biomedical research and clinical settings. For example, impedance micro-spectroscopy of single bacterial cells is expected to offer new diagnostics tools or rapid antimicrobial susceptibility tests, which will advance the efforts against antimicrobial resistance. This will build on Sidahmed earlier preliminary work that focused on developing a compact and automated instrument for culture-free detection of bacteria in urine using surface plasmon resonance sensors. This project aimed to enable rapid and accurate diagnosis of UTIs, addressing the critical need for tools that facilitate quick detection of infections. The delay in UTI diagnosis often leads to the prescription of empirical broad-spectrum antibiotics, contributing to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. 

Dr Stuart Hannah

Chief Executive Officer – Microplate Dx

10+ years academic and industrial experience in biotechnology, medical devices and diagnostics development for healthcare. Raised >£1M to date in private and non-dilutive commercial funding. Previous Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellow. 
Microplate Dx are an award winning spinout company from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, specialising in developing novel diagnostic solutions to tackle the major global health threat of antimicrobial resistance. The Microplate Dx technology is based on the simple yet highly innovative concept of using highly sensitive biosensor electrodes, modified with miniaturised hydrogel deposits laden with different antibiotics, depending on the infection type being measured. Microplate Dx exists to prevent and control the spread of antimicrobial resistance worldwide. To date, Microplate Dx has raised close to £1M in private equity investment, non-dilutive grant funding and competition wins. A recent clinical feasibility study performed in collaboration with the NHS has shown successful detection of the optimum antibiotic for an infection in well under an hour. We are now working to scale up our first product for difficult-to-treat urinary tract infections, before expanding our platform capabilities into new infectious disease areas of significant clinical need. 

Dr Magdalena Karlikowska

Magdalena holds a PhD in microbiology from the University of Warwick and 9+ years of academic and industry research experience in microbiology, diagnostics, and clinical trials. Alongside her academic pursuits, Magdalena has extended her influence in the field by providing strategy consulting services to NGOs and actively engaging in public health outreach initiatives in Kenya. As the CEO of Cytecom, a University of Warwick spinout, Magdalena is leading the development of an innovative diagnostic test that shortens the time for targeted antibiotic therapy selection from days to minutes, ensuring safer and more effective treatment. Through her dedication to advancing healthcare solutions and commitment to making a positive impact on global health, she continues to inspire and shape the future of medical research and innovation.

Dr Catrina Prince

Catrina is a Veterinarian and is the Antimicrobial Use, Stewardship and Stakeholder Engagement Manager (Antimicrobial Resistance, Policy and Surveillance team) at the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, with a keen interest in AMR diagnostics.

Niloy Acharya

Niloy is the R&D Programme Manager, Surveillance Division, at the Veterinary Medicines Directorate

Professor Marieke Emonts

As consultant Paediatric Infectious Diseases & Immunology and Honorary Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases I have a sound background in clinic and research from the start. I studied Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Leiden, the Netherlands, after which I combined my Paediatric training with a PhD post in the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Laboratory at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I completed my PhD on immunogenetics of infectious and inflammatory diseases in 2008. Initially focussing on meningococcal disease I broadened my horizon to include other bacterial infections. My PhD formed the start of wonderful collaborations resulting in participation in two large European funded consortia.The overarching theme in activities is the promotion of diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities for childhood infections, particularly in an era of increasing antimicrobial resistance. This requires focus of the research on:
1.     Early recognition of the type of infection: bacterial vs viral, and type of bacterial infection. This can minimise the unnecessary use of antimicrobials in patients presenting with fever at an A&E, and thus prevent antimicrobial resistance.
2.     Identification of alternative therapeutic targets, particularly in recurrent infective conditions to circumvent antimicrobial resistance. Innate immune factors could be these targets and elucidating their role in infection will aid in identifying which ones could also be targeted for prevention and/or treatment.
3.     Participation in randomised controlled trials facilitating registration of safe and effective antimicrobial/antiviral drugs for paediatric use.
In addition, with my team I have started to explore heallth inequality in infectious diseases. Infections like brain abscesses are more prevalent in the deprived Northeast, and also ED attendance for febrile illness is high for children from low IMD score (more deprived) areas in the region. Please click on the research tab above for further details.This theme is also reflected in my work as consultant Paediatric Infectious Diseases & Immunology at the Great North Children’s Hospital (GNCH) where I look after children with (severe) bacterial, fungal and viral infections. These include meningitis, osteomyelitis (in collaboration with the paediatric orthopaedic team) and congenital CMV infections. With our team, we provide a consultation service as part of the antimicrobial stewardship program. In addition, I am the Paediatric lead for the High Consequence Infectious Diseases Unit in the RVI.I am Curriculum director for the Post Graduate Clinical Research Programmes (Attendance and eLearning) for the Graduate School. I am Deputy Clinical Director and Patient Safety & Governance Lead for the Children’s Directorate, GNCH

Dr Denise O’Sullivan

Dr Denise O’Sullivan, Principal Scientist in Analytical Microbiology, is an experienced scientist in applying molecular and microbiological methods in the field of biomeasurement. She works at the National Measurement Laboratory, LGC developing the field of high accuracy measurements and standardisation in microbiology, particularly in molecular diagnostic methodologies which include AMR detection.

Dr Pip Hearty

I am a mixed-methods researcher that primarily undertakes research with socially excluded groups. A lot of my previous research has been with prisoner populations.