Molecular Microbiology Research Group

In 2022, a study revealed that 1.25 million people per year die of antimicrobial resistant infections globally (Murray et al., 2022). Bacteria are evolving to develop resistance to the antibiotics we are using to treat them, rendering them ineffective to combat infection. 

A key way to manage infection is to rapidly diagnose infections at the point of care. The Joshi group are developing a point of care device able to aid clinicians in diagnosing AMR infections, thus aiding antimicrobial stewardship. This interdisciplinary research is at the cutting edge of engineering, biophysics and molecular microbiology. We are currently focused on rapid detection of urinary tract infections. 

Applied microbiology in infection prevention and control: biocide resistance in AMR bacteria and efficacy of disinfection technologies 

AMR bacteria are developing tolerance to the biocide disinfectants used to treat them. The scale of this tolerance has been poorly explored; therefore, the Joshi research group is seeking to understand how bacteria (including ESKAPE pathogens) respond to disinfection with commonly used biocides. 

Our key pathogen of interest is Clostridioides difficile, the primary cause of hospital-acquired infection globally. In the US, C. difficile contributes to 14,000 deaths per year, costing approximately $1 billion annually (CDC, USA), while it was responsible for 29,425 deaths in the UK between 2006 and 2011 (Office for National Statistics), costing £500 million per year. Its spores are resistant to desiccation and biocide treatment and are able to persist on surfaces for months. The Joshi group focuses on understanding the mechanism of C. difficile spore resistance to biocides (e.g. chlorine releasing agents), evaluating the efficacy of new technologies to disinfect C. difficile, and molecular techniques to understand spore epidemiology.