The respiratory microbiome as a tool to predict exacerbations of disease

The Respiratory Microbiome Group welcomes applications from self-funded PhD students year round. We work on the respiratory microbiome in chronic and acute respiratory disease and have projects that can involve immunology in collaboration with the Institute of Inflammation of Ageing, fundamental lab-based projects involving culture, sequencing, metagenomics and understanding interactions within the microbiome, and more bioinformatic projects focused on analysis of clinical and sequence data. Disease focuses include COPD, Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis and acute infections such as ventilator associated pneumonia.

We're a collaborative and welcoming lab and committed to fostering a supportive and diverse environment in which to develop our scientific research together.

Predicting and preventing respiratory exacerbations

Increased numbers and severity of exacerbations – a worsening of a chronic condition that requires additional treatment, are linked with poor prognosis and increased mortality in many respiratory diseases. Many exacerbations are infective: can we use the microbiome as a tool to predict and even prevent exacerbations? The PhD student will use a range of techniques to answer this question including patient samples, culture based models, marker gene and metagenomic sequencing and bioinformatic analyses of clinical and sequence data.

Please get in touch for further information.