Evolution and Mechanisms

The United Nations has recognised that tackling the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment is one of the world's greatest emerging environmental concerns.

At Exeter, we explore the evolution of AMR to understand and potentially delay this process. We aim to establish a blueprint for how to best manage AMR in clinical and environmental settings. Currently, resistant bacteria are released into the natural environment through the contamination of streams, rivers, seawater and soil. The environment is impacted by antimicrobials and AMR organisms through animal waste on farms and through sewage-treatment-plant effluent. Exeter’s research focuses on new ways to break this damaging cycle.

We also study the evolution of resistance in clinical pathogens and in complex microbial communities found in human and animal microbiomes. Many fungal pathogens are also ubiquitous and are developing resistance to frontline clinical antifungal drugs via environmental selection, especially from antifungals routinely sprayed on a variety of crops. The molecular and evolutionary pathways explaining the emerging antifungal resistance need exploring. We aim to increase insight in those mechanisms to find targets to intervene.

Evolution and Mechanisms - primary investigators

Name	Role	Keywords
Professor William Gaze	Professor of Microbiology	Environment, policy, microbiome, evolution ecology, public health, agriculture, evidence
Professor Robert Beardmore	Professor of Mathematical Biosciences	Mathematical modelling, evolutionary datasets, antibiotic resistance
Dr Lihong Zhang	Research Fellow	Antibiotic resistance, molecular microbiology, environmental microbiology, medical microbiology, microbial ecology
Professor Angus Buckling	Professor of Evolutionary Biology	Evolutionary ecology, antimicrobial resistance
Dr Michiel Vos	Senior Lecturer	Microbiology, evolutionary ecology, population genomics, bacterial genome evolution, ecology of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes
Professor Neil Gow	Professor of Microbiology	Antifungal resistance, Candida auris, antifungal drug transit, drug resistance mechanisms, echinocandins, antifungal drugs, antifungal therapies
Professor Adilla Warris	Professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Deputy Director MRC Centre for Medical Mycology	Antifungal resistance, azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus, evolution, clinical implications
Professor Al Brown	Deputy Director MRC Centre for Medical Mycology	Antifungal resistance, evolution
Professor Edze Westra	Professor / NERC Independent Research Fellow	Ecological variables, evolution, immune strategies, bacteria, phage, CRISPR
Dr Stineke Van Houte	BBSRC Future Leadership Fellow	CRISPR-Cas, bacteria-phage interactions, AMR plasmid spread in microbial communities
Professor Stuart Townley	Professor in Applied Mathematics	Systems modelling, analysis and management
Dr Aimee Murray	Lecturer	Culturing, molecular methods (qPCR, cloning, functional metagenomics), next-generation sequencing, metagenome analyses, evolution experiments
Dr Ben Raymond	Associate Professor	Experimental evolutionary ecology, insects, plants, bacterial pathogens and symbionts, virulence and resistance, parasites, symbionts, Bacillus thruringiensis and resistance to antibiotics
Dr Rhys Farrer	Lecturer in Bioinformatics at MRC Centre for Medical Mycology	Genome sequencing, hospital outbreak strains, C. auris, C. neoformans, C. gattii, environmental sequencing, variant discovery in antifungal targets, ERG11, tool/database development of drug resistance alleles, MARDy
Dr Alan Brown	Senior Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology	Molecular bacteriology, niche adaptation and antimicrobial resistance, host-pathogen interactions, immunotherapy
Professor Ivana Gudelj	Professor of Evolutionary Systems Biology	Mathematical modelling, multi-species communities, evolution, antifungals
Dr Steven Porter	Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry	Bacterial signal transduction, novel antimicrobial development, kinase inhibitors, sensor kinase, protein biochemistry, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia pseudomallei
Professor Sarah Gurr	Chair in Food Security	Antifungals, fungicide resistance, evolution, global movement and stewardship of antifungals
Dr Phil Mitchelmore	Clinical Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine	Bronchiectasis, Cystic Fibrosis, lung disease, cross-infection, microbiome, antimicrobial resistance
Dr Remy Chait	Lecturer	Technology development, bioscience