My PhD was obtained from University of Galway (NUI Galway) where I investigated the role of the glutamate decarboxylase system in stress response of Listeria monocytogenes under the supervision of Prof Conor O’Byrne.

I then moved to University College Cork and APC Microbiome Ireland as a postdoctoral researcher to work with Prof Paul Cotter and Prof Paul Ross, searching for strains of Lactobacillus that could inhibit the pathogens involved in bacterial vaginosis. A subsequent funded postdoctoral fellowship saw me continue and extend this work at Teagasc and the APC and develop research into the role of the vaginal microbiome in preterm birth.

Following from this I started a third postdoctoral position, on the MicrobeMom project based at Teagasc where I joined a large cross institutional team looking at the factors that influence the transfer of microbes from mothers to infants.

A fourth postdoctoral position then took me to University of Oxford to work with Prof Nicole Stoesser and a multidisciplinary team developing a novel, microscopy-based tool to diagnose bacterial infections and determine antibiotic resistance.

I have now joined University of Glasgow and the School of Infection and Immunity as a lecturer in Bacteriology.

My research group is interested in the role of the human microbiome in health and disease. In particular we focus on the vaginal microbiome across 3 core areas – Community Ecology and Genomics, Mechanisms of Host-Microbe Interaction, and Intervention/Modulation.

Microbiome sequencing has provided large amounts of data linking vaginal microbes to health outcomes. Communities dominated with Lactobacillus species (L. crispatus, L. gasseri, L. jensenii, L. iners) are generally considered beneficial. Their depletion has been associated with an increased risk of sexually transmitted infection, bacterial vaginosis, and pregnancy complications including preterm birth. There is great genetic diversity both between and within these species, coupled with varying health associations. We are keen to determine the mechanisms that are driving these associations and highlight the importance of strain level variation.

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