Overview

Cohort: 9

I am an infectious diseases/microbiology trainee in the north-east of England, with an interest in innate immunity and intracellular bacteria, such as Listeria monocytogenes and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2019 and completed the Academic Foundation Programme in Liverpool, before taking two years out of training to work as a research fellow. During this time, I worked on tuberculosis epidemiology, pneumococcal controlled human infection models and various clinical trials within infectious diseases.

In 2023, I started an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Infectious Diseases/Microbiology in Newcastle, and I was awarded a 4Ward North PhD fellowship in 2025.

PhD title

The role of type I interferon in Listeria monocytogenes infection in human macrophages.

Brief summary of PhD project

Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) causes septicaemia and meningoencephalitis, with a fatality rate of up to 30% in susceptible populations.

Type I interferons (IFN-I) are cytokines with primarily antiviral function in humans. However, research in mice has demonstrated that IFN-I may be deleterious during infection with Lm. Mice that lack the IFN-I receptor (IFNAR1/2), and thus lack IFN-I signalling, are more resistant to listeriosis, with improved survival compared to wild type mice.

However, this effect has not yet been investigated in humans. Using CRISPR gene editing of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), we have produced clonal IFNAR2 knockout (IFNAR2^-/-) and isogenic wild-type control (IFNAR2^+/+) iPSCs, which can be differentiated to macrophages, providing a precise model in which to dissect IFNAR signalling.

During my PhD, I will infect these macrophages with Lm and assess cell viability, bacterial growth, mechanisms of cell death and cell signalling through a variety of techniques.

Key collaborators/supervisors

Lead supervisor

Dr Christopher Duncan (Newcastle University)

Co-supervisors

• Dr Katarzyna Mickiewicz (Newcastle University)
• Professor Ian Roberts (The University of Manchester)
• Professor Mattias Trost (Newcastle University)

Specialty interest/techniques

• Induced pluripotent stem cell modelling
• Innate immunity: macrophages and interferons
• Intracellular bacteria
• Proteomics

Career aspirations

In my future as a clinician scientist, I aspire to lead on discovery research into how to harness our own immune systems to combat bacterial infections and reduce over-reliance on antibiotics. I hope to combine my prior experience in human challenge studies and clinical trials with the skills and knowledge I will gain from this fellowship.

Clinically, I hope to work as an infectious diseases/microbiology consultant.

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