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Team
Our team spans a diverse range of research focusing around interactions between bacteria and their hosts as well as each other; and what evolutionary processes have led to this. We use both computational and molecular biology methods; and span methods from mosquito microbiome transplantations to in-house sequencing and population genomics. If you want to know a bit more about what each of us is doing, please take a look at our websites!
Eva Heinz
Team Leader
Aidan Foo
PhD student
Alice Fraser
PhD student
Cintia Cansado-Utrilla
PhD student
Nicola Fletcher
PhD student
Sarah Gallichan
PhD student
Allan Zuza
MSc student
Shannon Quek
PostDoc
Alumni
Naomi Dyer Naomi successfully applied for her Daphne-Jackson fellowship co-sponsored by Martin Donnelly and myself, investigating cis-regulatory transcription in Anopheles. She then successfully applied for a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkins scholarship and started her independent group on LSTM’s career track, congratulations Naomi!!!
Vish Dhokyia Vish worked with us during 2021/2022 on mosquito microbiomes and got a lot of our work kick-started. He is now wrapping up papers from his year as RA and working hard on his PhD with Grant Hughes, Tom Walker and Mark Taylor on Wolbachia in Anopheles!
Ananya Ferdous Hoque Ananya worked with us during 2022/2023 on mosquito microbiomes, and did a fantastic job both supporting that part of our projects, as well as giving our freezer a significant (re)organisation, thank you Ananya! She has now moved on to a PhD scholarship at the University of Edinburgh, we wish her best of luck with her new adventures.
Laura Brettell We were lucky to work with Laura for almost 3 years 2021-2023 as she performed her last post as PDRA and has now started her independent team at Salford University, take a look at her current work there! Laura led several projects and made huge contributions to our findings on mosquito microbiomes.
Louise Cerdeira Louise is part of Martin Donnelly’s team and joined us for a few months as postdoctoral researcher in 2022 contributing to projects on Wolbachia and MINUUR.
Sean Tomlinson Sean joined as postdoctoral researcher 2021 to work with Nick Feasey and myself on our main Klebsiella genomics project.
Mollie Campbell-Short Molly successfully completed her MSc project on “Linking genomic and chemical characteristics of Klebsiella pneumoniae to improve understanding of different polysaccharide capsules and their classification” with us in 2020.
Nina Billows Nina successfully completed her MSc project on “An assessment of population structure and efflux pump diversity of Escherichia coli sequence type 131 isolates” with us in 2020. Nina is currently performing her PhD studies at LSHTM, good luck!
Nicola Fletcher Nikki worked with Jennifer Lord, Ian Patterson, Tom Edwards and myself on her MSc “Characterising the virome of UK mosquitoes” and completed successfully in 2021. We are very excited that Nikki will continue to work with us later this year on an MRC/DTP fellowship!
Lucien Dobel-Ober Lucien successfully completed his MSc project on “Identification of genomic traits of mosquito midgut associated symbionts” with us in 2021. Lucien will now continue on an MRC/DTP fellowship working with Grant Hughes and Philip McCall, congratulations!
Ralfh Pulmones Ralfh successfully completed his MSc project on “Whole genome analysis of antibiotic resistance gene mobility in carbapenem-resistant clinical isolates of GC2 Acinetobacter baumannii” with us in 2020; and successfully competed for an MRC/DTP PhD position where Ralfh worked with Thomas Edwards and myself on resistance mechanisms during the MRes rotations.
Whilst we are enthusiastic at science, we are also a very friendly and open group of people, and always excited to welcome new members; if you might be interested, please take a look below.
Join us!
Post Doctoral Researcher
At the moment we do not have open positions, these are also always advertised with the LSTM vacancies. Here is also a non-exhaustive list of fellowships you might be interested in considering; if you might be interested please feel free to get in touch.
Funding
We are very grateful to our funders, who make all this possible.
The Wellcome Trust Wellcome SEED Award, 2019-2023. We are very grateful to Wellcome for allowing us several extensions following severe impacts of COVID on this project. Looking for the Achilles heel: understanding the role of intrinsic and acquired determinants of antimicrobial resistance in the rise and fall of Klebsiella pneumoniae lineages as the first step in exploiting the fitness cost of antimicrobial resistance. 217303/Z/19/Z. (PI Eva Heinz).
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation BMGF, 2020-2022. Sequencing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from Chatinkha neonatal unit. INV-005180. (PI Nick Feasey, Co-I Eva Heinz).
UKRI BBSRC-NSF, 2020-2025. Bacterial and host genetic factors contributing to microbiome acquisition and homeostasis in mosquitoes. BB/V011278/1. (BBSRC PI Eva Heinz; NSF PI (joint award) Kerri Coon University of Wisconsin-Madison, Co-I BBSRC Grant Hughes LSTM).
BBSRC International travel award scheme, 2022. Expanding the scope of mosquito-gut microbiome research to incorporate insect-specific viruses. BB/X010929/1. (PI Eva Heinz, Co-RI Laura Brettell; with collaborator Ian Patterson).
CDC funding CDC CoAg 2021-2026 Advancing Public Health Research in Kenya, to a consortium of KEMRI, Washington State University & LSTM; GH21-003. (Eva Heinz is Co-I & lead of work package 2E, lead PI LSTM Feiko terKuile).
Daphne-Jackson Trust Fellowship for Naomi Dyer! BBSRC/DJT; 2021-2023. Investigation of cis-regulation of metabolic insecticide resistance related gene expression in Anopheles gambiae using allelic imbalance. Naomi Dyer successfully competed for a BBSRC-funded Daphne-Jackson Trust fellowship sponsored by Martin Donnelly and Eva; congratulations!
Royal Society Research grant, 2022-2023. Determining drivers of viral community composition in UK mosquitoes. (PI Jenni Lord, collaborators Laura Brettell, Tom Edwards and Eva Heinz).
BactiVac Pump-prime grant, 2023. Immune signature against Klebsiella pneumoniae proteins in a mother-baby cohort from Blantyre, Malawi. (PI Eva Heinz; Co-I Nick Feasey, Co-I Joe Campo).