Wessex One Health BBSRC scholarship: Understanding how targeted interventions shape microbial ecology and antimicrobial drug resistance (AMR) transmission

This PhD scholarship is offered as part of a doctoral programme funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) which will train postgraduate researchers in interdisciplinary approaches to Infection Biosciences across all classes of pathogens, to combat existing and future disease threats to human and animal health, including emerging infections, vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance and food insecurity. This specific project focuses on understanding how targeted interventions shape microbial ecology and antimicrobial drug resistance (AMR) transmission in healthcare settings. Working in partnership between Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the UK Health Security Agency, the successful candidate will describe the burden of AMR in hospital wastewater, investigate the mechanistic and ecological effects of intervention strategies, and identify how antibiotic residues influence microbial selection and gene transfer. The PhD will apply Targeted Waste Stewardship, a novel bioscience-led intervention that separates and safely contains waste from two key patient groups: those colonised or infected with multidrug-resistant organisms, and those receiving last-line antimicrobial drugs. This interdisciplinary project offers a unique opportunity to combine environmental microbiology and OneHealth approaches to tackle the real-world AMR problem. Successful applicants will develop a broad skillset including infection biology, genomics, bioinformatics and systems modelling, preparing them for a future career in hospital wastewater research and public health.