Fully-funded PhD: Interrogating microbiomes and metabolomes during P. aeruginosa infiltration and colonisation in CF respiratory tract infection

This PhD project focuses on understanding the biochemistry underpinning invasions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa into respiratory microbiomes.

Cystic fibrosis affects >11,000 people in the UK of whom more than 10% will become chronically colonised by the bacterial species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The arrival of this pathogen, even with CFTR modulator therapy, can signify the worsening of respiratory symptoms. This is so clinically important that guidelines require the separation of persons living with cystic fibrosis to limit the spread of this bacterium. There is, however, no predictor accounting for why one person will become colonised and another will not. 

To understand and predict the potential for invasion, the project will investigate the metabolomes and microbiomes during ecological events that lead to the successful invasion of P. aeruginosa. This will be achieved by using cutting-edge DNA sequencing and LC-MS technologies. 

The successful candidate will gain significant interdisciplinary skills, including microbiology, analytical chemistry, and ecological modelling. They will join our vibrant, growing doctoral community in the new £117M Dalton Building within the Faculty of Science and Engineering and have access to the cutting-edge research facilities and laboratory spaces.

Project aims and objectives

The overarching aim of this project is to observe how respiratory microbiomes of PWCF change when faced with P. aeruginosa, and whether the reaction determines the success or failure of the infiltration attempt. The proposal will achieve this by completing the following objectives:

1. Culture microbiomes from patient samples.
2. Identify microbiomes which are highly resistant or permissible to P. aeruginosa.
3. Profile secreted metabolites to find differences in resistant and permissible microbiomes.
4. Validate in vitro findings by longitudinal sequencing of microbiomes from P. aeruginosa naïve PWCF through their acquisition and colonisation with the pathogen.