The Bakery

Meet the team

Established in 2016, the Bakery currently consists of 7 members. Scroll on down to find out more about them and what they work on.

The Bakery: May 2022

ROLE

Kate leads the group ensuring that the strategy is in place to deliver successful outcomes in line with our mission statement and values. This translates to steering our scientific direction, securing adequate resources, finding and appointing awesome people (see below) and providing them with effective guidance and personal development opportunities to achieve the full potential of their projects, group contribution, and personal career trajectories.

BACKSTORY

I qualified as a veterinarian in Australia (BVSc Hons University of Melbourne, 2006) and then practiced in Critical Care and domestic small animal practice before moving to the UK and commencing my PhD at the University of Cambridge and Institute of Zoology, London in 2008 (supervisors- Professors James Wood, Andrew Cunningham and Dr Pablo Murcia, awarded 2012). Originally funded by a Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium Junior Research Fellowship I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship which ran until 2013. During my PhD I studied viral zoonoses in a common African fruit bat, Eidolon helvum, using a combination of epidemiological, serological, molecular and virological techniques. I then took up a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (under Professors Nicholas Thomson and Julian Parkhill) working on large-scale genomic epidemiology projects on enteric pathogens (mostly Shigella) and antimicrobial resistance. In 2014, I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship and moved from the Sanger Institute to the University of Liverpool to start my own group in 2016. To find out what's happened since then check out my CV.

RANDOM FACT

One of my top ten life moments was singing ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ with a Beatles tribute band in the Cavern Club on my hen do.

ROLE

George is a PhD student whose project is a study of Shigella in South Africa, using whole genome sequence analysis, with a focus on genetic epidemiology.

BACKSTORY

I graduated from the University of Manchester with a BSc. Hons degree in Biomedical science in 2014. I later moved to Belgium to complete a MSc. in Biomedical science- Infectious and Tropical diseases at the University of Antwerp, during which I undertook a research project, at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, studying the changes in the expression of redox balancing genes throughout the Typanosoma brucei life cycle. I then worked as a project manager, back in the UK, for a year before starting my PhD.

RANDOM FACT

I once saw the Duchess of Cambridge in Kings Cross Station, though no one believes me because she didn’t have any guards with her (that I could see). She was just with, what I assumed to be, her mum.

ROLE

BBSRC Newcastle Liverpool Durham Doctoral Training Partnership PhD student

BACKSTORY

In 2018 I graduated from the University of Liverpool with a First-Class Honours Degree in Microbiology where my Honours Project focussed on the genetic dissection of the desKR operon within Staphylococcus aureus. During my time at Liverpool I completed two Summer internships with Dr Malcolm Horsburgh. The first internship was investigating the competition between Staphylococci and its effects upon biofilm formation, in particular S. aureus and S. epidermidis. The second project was the production of a DesR SNP SH1000 S.aureus mutant. I received the Microbiology society’s “Microbiologist of the Year” award in 2017 and graduated with Microbiology prize in 2018. Upon graduating I accepted a BBSRC funded PhD position with Dr Kate Baker at the University of Liverpool within the Functional and Comparative Genomics department.

RANDOM FACT

I am a descendant of a 17th century pirate who was the lone survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of Cuba. Argh!

ROLE

I am investigating the role played by plasmid pKSR100 in driving Shigella epidemics. I am also working on deciphering plasmid dynamics of pKSR100 between different Shigella species as well as other enteric bacteria.

BACKSTORY

I completed my Masters degree in Biotechnology For a Sustainable Future from the University of East Anglia in 2011. My dissertation focused on the effect of environmental factors such as salinity, temperature and other stresses on the production of dimethylsulfoniopropionate by dinoflagellate marine plankton Crypthecodinium cohnii and Symbiodinium microadriaticum. After that, I started my PhD in Microbiology at the University of Manitoba in Canada investigating the environmental determinants of antibiotic susceptibility and virulence of the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii mainly focusing on Two Component Systems of A. baumannii. In 2019, I joined the research group led by Dr. Kate Baker as a post doctoral research assistant.

RANDOM FACT

I have lived in five different countries so far in the past 13 years and loved experiencing different cultures and lifestyles.

ROLE

Lewis is a currently working in the group as a research assistant ahead of becoming a PhD student supervised by Dr. Kate Baker and Dr. Claire Jenkins. Surveillance of epidemiological and antimicrobial resistance changes in sexually transmissible enteric infections is his major research interest.

BACKSTORY

During my Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) accredited degree in [BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science], I specialised in medical microbiology and undertook a research project involving the characterisation of antimicrobial resistance plasmids in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. Following graduation with First Class Honours and being awarded the Don Whitley Scientific Microbiology Prize in 2019, I commenced study in MSc Infection, Immunity and Human Disease at the University of Leeds, where I specialised in bacteriology and undertook research in characterising antimicrobial resistance proteins in Acinetobacter baumannii and other WHO priority pathogens. I then worked at the University of Liverpool as a research assistant, aiding in the surveillance of epidemiological and antimicrobial resistance changes in sexually transmissible enteric infections and commenced PhD study at the university in December 2020 (funded by the NIHR HPRU in Gastrointestinal Infections). My long-term career goal is to become a higher education lecturer and research associate.

RANDOM FACT

I have a passion for French language and culture. My most profound memory is of having an ice-cream, on a hot summer’s day, by the river Seine in Paris.

ROLE

I am an infectious disease epidemiologist working both as a postdoctoral fellow at the department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology & Immunology, University of Liverpool and as a Senior Epidemiology Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency. My research interests are in the strengthening of infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigation through digital and novel methodologies, with a particular focus on the collection of exposure data. My current research focuses on the epidemiology of foreign travel associated GI infections and aims to better understand the risk factors for acquiring GI infections while abroad.

BACKSTORY

I undertook a PhD at the University of Cambridge on the Wellcome programme in Stem Cell Biology and Medicine and then moved to infectious disease epidemiology, working first as a research assistant in global health while completing a Masters in Public Health and then as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Health Protection and Influenza group, University of Nottingham under Professor Jonathan Van Tam and Dr Richard Puleston (UKHSA). I left academia to join the UK Health Security Agency as a Field Epidemiology Training Programme fellow and remained in UKHSA after my fellowship working as an epidemiologist in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber Field Service (FS) team. While I have a strong interest in GI, my UKHSA work covers surveillance, research and outbreak investigation for all infectious diseases.

RANDOM FACT

After completing my PhD I spent 9 months travelling from Chicago, USA to Ushuaia, Argentina by motorbike

ROLE

Postdoctoral Research Associate

BACKSTORY

I completed both my undergraduate and master’s degrees in Microbiology at the University of Liverpool. In 2016, I started my BBSRC and Unilever funded PhD project, under the supervision of Dr Mal Horsburgh (University of Liverpool). My studies were focused on the human scalp microbiome. I used metagenomic sequencing to provide insight into the microbes colonising healthy and dandruff scalps. I also performed comparative and population genomic analyses on Staphylococcus capitis isolated from the human scalp. I joined the research group led by Prof. Kate Baker in 2021 funded across both MRC and EPSRC funded projects.

RANDOM FACT

When I was 8 years old, I won a trip for my family to the Bahamas