About the Project
Second Supervisor: Dr Lijiang Song, Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick
Chronic lung infections commonly harbour communities of opportunistic pathogens that engage in competitive and cooperative interactions mediated by secreted metabolites, influencing community composition, persistence and disease progression.
Bacteria are often exposed to sub-inhibitory concentrations within the host and the environment. Growing evidence shows that such exposure alters bacterial physiology and can trigger the production of specialised metabolites. These antibiotic-induced responses may modify bacterial interactions and potentially reshape microbial community dynamics. However, the role of antibiotic-driven metabolite production in polymicrobial communities remains poorly understood.
This project will address this knowledge gap using a porcine ex vivo lung model that captures key features of the lung environment and has been successfully used to study mono- and polymicrobial infections. Combining this model with mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, bacterial genetics and quantitative community analyses, we will investigate how antibiotics influence specialised metabolite production and how these changes affect interactions between different bacterial pathogens.
Hypothesis
Sub-inhibitory antibiotic exposure alters specialised metabolite production, thereby reshaping interspecies interactions and community dynamics in polymicrobial communities.
Aims
- Determine how antibiotic exposure influences specialised metabolite production in mono- and polymicrobial communities.
- Identify antibiotic-induced metabolites that alter competitive and cooperative interactions in polymicrobial communities.
- Investigate how antibiotic-driven changes in metabolite production affect community composition and persistence in an ex vivo lung model.
By linking antibiotic-induced metabolic responses to bacterial interactions and community dynamics, this work will provide new insight into the consequences of antibiotic exposure in polymicrobial communities.
Techniques that will be undertaken during the project
Natural product/metabolite isolation methods, mass spectrometry guided molecular networking (including metabolite annotation and quantification), bacterial genetics, bacterial mono- and co-infections in ex-vivo infection models.
Enquiries
Project Enquiries to cwj2@leicester.ac.uk
Programme enquiries to mibtp-admin@leicester.ac.uk
To apply please refer to https://le.ac.uk/study/research-degrees/funded-opportunities/bbsrc-mibtp
Funding Notes
All MIBTP students will be provided with a 4 year studentship. This includes: Tuition fees at the UK fee rate*, a tax free stipend which for 2026/7 is £21,805 per year (2027/8 stipend to be confirmed), a travel allowance over years 1-3, a travel/conference budget, a generous consumables budget, use of a laptop for the duration of the programme. The University of Leicester will provide full overseas fee waivers for the duration of their study to all international students accepted at Leicester. The funder, UKRI, allows us to appoint up to 30% overseas students.
