I obtained my PhD from Swansea University where I worked on the regulation of stress responses in the bacterial genus Streptomyces under the supervision of Prof. Paul Dyson.

I then moved onto a post-doctoral position in INBIOTEC, a biotechnology institute in León, Spain, working on signal transduction, genome sequencing and proteome analysis in Streptomyces.

I then joined Prof. Mervyn Bibb’s research group as a post-doctoral scientist at the John Innes Centre, where I worked on the regulation of antibiotic production. I also developed genetic tools to work with actinomycetes and worked with Prof. Barrie Wilkinson studying virulence factors in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in order to use these as potential drug targets.

I then secured my first academic position at Edge Hill University where I continued working on regulation of antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters and developed research in understanding soil microbial interactions, an area which I find fascinating.

I have now joined the School of Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow where I am a Reader in Bacteriology.

My research interests include:

Study of interactions between Streptomyces species and other soil microorganisms in soil systems, with the aim to understand how these bacteria behave and communicate with other soil microbial community members as well as to identify the signals leading to the production of silent natural products with potential biotechnological applications.

Understanding the complex regulatory pathways that lead to antibiotic production in Actinobacteria as well as the study of the regulation of resistance mechanisms in antibiotic producing bacteria (the likely source of clinically relevant antibiotic resistance).

Activation of silent specialised metabolite gene clusters in Actinobacteria by using gene manipulation, co-cultivation and environmental extracellular signalling methods in order to characterise new gene clusters encoding novel compounds with antibiotic activity.

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