As a founding member of a new research team at the Quadram Institute, the post-holder will have an exceptional opportunity for both scientific leadership and mentorship. To promote their scientific development, the project will offer extensive opportunity on Quadram’s leading technological platforms for genomics, bioinformatics, and culture-based models. To promote leadership development, the project will also leverage collaborative partnerships from public health, food safety, and industrial sectors.

The core component of the post-holder’s studies will include analyses of the genetic content and diversity of Listeria, including comparison of UK clones against international sequences, to identify specific clones or genetic traits that may promote Listeria as a food hazard. Beyond the genome of individual Listeria, the description of microbial populations present on foods and on food contact surfaces is necessary to identify the composition of the microbiome, including if multiple variants of Listeria can be observed within samples.

The outcomes of genome sequencing and microbiome studies will drive the design collaborative studies within the Programme using large transposon libraries for the clones of interest, that when paired with functional studies, will further identify specific traits that support the adaptive processes of Listeria. These traits will then be brought forward to our partners to determine their significance to inform and potentially mitigate food hazard risks.