Human Microbiome

Meet some of our leading academics in human microbiome research.

Professor Barry Campbell
Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology

Barry’s research led to specific understanding of the causes and consequences of altered intestinal mucosal glycosylation that occurs in intestinal inflammation and cancer. He now leads one of the key international research groups investigating the bacteria-host epithelium interactions, particularly Crohn’s disease- and colorectal cancer-mucosa associated Escherichia coli, including translational projects on effects of antibiotics, environment modulating agents and dietary components.

Dr Jo Fothergill
Senior Lecturer Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology

Jo uses a combination of sequencing, culture and relevant models to study complex communities in respiratory infections. Jo is currently performing a large metagenomics sequencing project on respiratory samples from people with cystic fibrosis and has used 16S rRNA sequencing to monitor community changes in the lungs during clinical trials.

Professor Stephen Kaye
Professor of Ophthalmology

The focus of Stephen's work is to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcome of infections of the cornea of the eye, known as microbial keratitis. Microbial keratitis is a major cause of blindness worldwide with 6000 cases a year in the UK.

Professor Louise Kenny
Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences

Louise Kenny is a founding Director of the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (INFANT).
She has worked extensively in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and the discovery of associated biomarkers and microbial species. She has a long-standing interest in cohort studies to uncover the aetiology of non-communicable disease, including the contribution of early-life microbiota to the development of childhood diseases and the linkage of health information data to improve city-wide health.

Professor Mark Pritchard
Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology

Mark is keenly interested in the gastrointestinal microbiome and in particular how it influences an individual's susceptibility towards developing gastrointestinal cancer and his/her likelihood of developing gastrointestinal toxic side effects following the administration of systemic cancer treatments. Current research is investigating how the GI microbiome regulates the GI toxicity of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

Professor Chris Probert
Professor of Gastroenterology

Chris and his research group are interested in the intestinal microbiome and metabolome of humans, horses and mice. Chris' interest is the change in these omics in health and disease. The group have optimised techniques for the study of the microbiome and applied this to inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr Andrew Sharp
Senior Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics

Andrew is the clinical lead for multiple pregnancy and fetal growth at Liverpool Women's Hospital and a member of the Harris-Wellbeing Preterm Birth Centre at the University of Liverpool. Preterm birth places huge demands on the NHS, is very expensive to manage and causes lifelong physical and emotional harm to babies and their parents. Andrew and his team are investigating the role of the vaginal microbiome in the prediction of preterm birth in multiple pregnancy.

Professor Janneke Van De Wijgert
Professor of Infection and Global Health

Janneke’s main areas of research and teaching include: general infectious and immune-mediated disease epidemiology (including COVID-19), the role of the human microbiome in health and disease, the role of the cervicovaginal microbiome in reproductive and neonatal health and disease, and in prevention of HIV transmission, evaluation of diagnostics, treatments, and prevention interventions in these areas.

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