Kirstyn Beattie
- University of Strathclyde
I graduated in 2023 with an MSci Microbiology from the University of Strathclyde. Throughout my undergraduate degree I was very involved in the University’s Sports Union and represented Strathclyde in Lacrosse and Equestrian sports. I went on to take on several committee roles such as Team Captain and Club President and held various elected positions including Strathclyde Sports Union Vice President. Sports were a huge part of my academic life and still continues to be – I enjoy doing Park Runs, paddleboarding and wild swimming. My research interests lie in applied microbiology. From agriculture to healthcare, I enjoy seeing the effects that research can have outside of the lab.
As part of the Walker lab at the University of Strathclyde and Milner lab at the University of Glasgow, my PhD research project “Narrow spectrum antibiotics for the treatment and prevention of soft rot plant disease” focusses on the utilisation of protein antibiotics – bacteriocins – against soft rot plant disease which is caused by Pectobacterium spp. It can occur in a range of economically important crops like potatoes and carrots, and is thought to cause ~£750 million in damages worldwide each year. Bacteriocins are potent, naturally produced, protein antibiotics that have a narrow-killing spectrum and can be deployed to target a specific pathogen while leaving the wider plant and soil associated microbiomes intact. The use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the food chain is undesirable as this can lead to the selection of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria which may ultimately cause infections in humans. Our current work focusses on the identification, production and testing of novel bacteriocins targeting Pectobacterium spp. We use a range of bioinformatic, genomic and biochemical tools to determine the mechanism of action of identified Pectobacterium targeting bacteriocins and to test the efficacy of these bacteriocins in soft rot plant disease models.