Email: michael.brockhurst@manchester.ac.uk

Research profile and key clinical specialties

I am an evolutionary microbiologist studying the evolutionary adaptation of microbial pathogens during infections.

My lab uses genomic technologies, experimental evolution, and clinical studies to understand the dynamics and genomic basis of adaptation and antimicrobial resistance emergence in a range of systems, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa respiratory infections.

We have a strong interest in the role of mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, in driving bacterial genome diversification and the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

We are also working on devising alternatives to chemotherapeutic antimicrobials, including phage therapy.

Two key publications

• Bottery MJ, Wood AJ & Brockhurst MA. Adaptive modulation of antibiotic resistance through intragenomic coevolution. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, 1364–1369 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0242-3
• Davies E, James C, Williams D, O’Brien S, Fothergill J, Haldenby S, Paterson S, Winstanley C, Brockhurst MA. Temperate phages both mediate and drive adaptive evolution in pathogen biofilms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016) 113 (29) 8266-8271; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1520056113

Possible PhD projects

• Understanding and predicting the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in human infection using genomics, lab experiments, and clinical studies

More information

I lead the AMR network and Microbial Evolution Research cluster, which includes several Wellcome fellows. I serve on the Wellcome Pathogen Biology Expert Review Group.

Keywords: microbiology, microbiologist, pathogens, genomic, Pseudomonas, aeruginosa, respiratory, chemotherapeutic, phage therapy, antimicrobials, Michael, Brockhurst, Manchester

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