Jasira Patel (PhD student) wins Cerillo competition

Jasira Patel has been successful in winning the Cerillo Co-culture Champion competition. Jasira will be utilising the companies Duet co-culture system to invetigate the interaction between the respiratory pathogen non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and commsenal Corynebacterium spp.

Research Background

NTHi is a pathobiont that naturally inhabits our respiratory tract, however, upon perturbation it has been shown to cause a variety of lung diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Cystic Fibrosis. It has also been identified by WHO as a priority pathogen for the development of new treatments due to increasing evidence of antimicrobial resistance.

Corynebacterium spp, have previously been shown to have antimicrobial activity against two other key pathobionts that also reside in the upper respiratory tract; Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae. However, their interactions with NTHi are yet to be investigated.

The aim of this project is to investigate the interplay between Corynebacterium spp and NTHi, and to determine if Corynebacterium spp. have potential to be used as a future bacteriotherapy for NTHi infection.