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Dr Georgia Isom’s lab is studying how bacteria build the cell envelope, a major determinant of antibiotic resistance in bacteria as it provides a physical barrier to protect against antibiotics. On her ERC award, Dr Isom said:

 “I am incredibly happy to be a recipient of an ERC Starting Grant, both because of its prestige and for the support it will provide for my junior research group. I owe a big debt and thank you to my current colleagues, former colleagues and mentors, my lab members, and my friends and family for their support. Without them my application would not have been a success.”

Dr Mathew Stracy’s lab is working to better understand the effect that antibiotics have on the gut microbiome and the spread of antibiotic resistance within it. On his ERC award, Dr Stracy said:

“I’m very excited for this project to be funded. Our work focuses on pathogens that typically reside benignly in within the gut microbiota but can sometimes spread to other body sites where they cause disease, such as the urinary tract or bloodstream. When these pathogens are resistant to antibiotics, treatment can cause them to overgrow, leading to hard-to-treat infections. This grant will allow us to better understand this phenomenon and test new strategies to minimise the antibiotic-induced spread of resistant pathogens”.

Written by Isabella Maudlin (Murphy lab)