Prof Meera Unnikrishnan
Professor
I completed my PhD at Imperial College London studying the biological functions ofStreptococcus pyogenes superantigens. I was awarded an American Heart Association post-doctoral fellowship to investigate the mechanisms of host modulation by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi at Harvard University, Boston. In a second postdoctoral fellowship, also at Harvard, I studied Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis, focusing on the specialized type VII secretion systems. My studies showed that one of the type VII systems, ESX-3 is involved in iron uptake and virulence in mycobacteria. In 2009, I joined Novartis Vaccines, Italy, as a Senior Scientist where her group investigated the functions of vaccine candidates from Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile. Key studies my group initiated here included investigation of the role of S. aureus type VII systems in mediating host-pathogen interactions and understanding mechanisms by which secreted C. difficile proteins mediate colonisation. I joined the University of Warwick as Assistant Professor of Molecular Bacteriology in 2013.
Dr Pooja Agarwal
Research Fellow – Warwick Monash Alliance AMR
I completed my Ph.D. at the Central Drug Research Institute, India where I focused mainly on the persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in adipose tissue. Using a mouse model, I showed that Mtb is able to persist in adipose tissue even after successful drug treatment.
After completing my Ph.D., I joined as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof Valerie Mizrahi at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. There, I worked for three years on a project involving Mtb and its interaction with foamy macrophages.
I joined the Unnikrishnan group in February 2022 as a Research Fellow under the Monash Warwick Alliance AMR programme. Here, I will work on an interdisciplinary project that aims to develop novel nanoparticle-based approaches to target intracellular human pathogens like Mtb and Staphylococcus aureus using relevant in vitro and in vivo infection models
Dr Robeena Farzand
Research Fellow – MRC
I completed my PhD in 2018 at the University of Leicester, specialising in the study of horizontal gene transfer and its impact on the virulence and antimicrobial resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae. During my doctoral studies, I developed a keen interest in mycobacteriology, which led me to board on my first post-PhD project from 2018 to 2020, with Prof. Mike Barer at the University of Leicester’s Department of Respiratory Sciences. Our research was dedicated to investigating the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its implications for disease severity and transmissibility. This project involved the genotyping and phenotyping of M. tuberculosis strain responsible for a persistent outbreak (since 2002) in the East Midlands, UK.
Following this, I worked with Prof. Chris Bayliss from 2020 to 2023 in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology at the University of Leicester. Our research was focused on high-throughput phenotypic testing and genome-wide association studies of different clonal complexes of Neisseria meningitidis, with the overarching goal of constructing a predictive model for determining the disease and carriage states of this pathogen.
In June 2023, I became a member of the Meera Unnikrishnan Lab at Warwick Medical School, where my current focus centre’s on understanding the roles played by various effectors of Type 7 secretion system of Staphylococcus aureus in infection pathways.
Thomas MacCreath
PhD Candidate – MIBTP
I graduated from Aston University in 2019 with a BSc. (Hons) in Biomedical Science, during which I undertook an industrial internship at GE Healthcare Life Sciences (now Cytiva), working within the Biology Technical Support team at the Cardiff manufacturing site. I then joined the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) in September 2019 and received interdisciplinary training before joining the Unnikrishnan group in July 2020 as a PhD student.
The aim of my project is to investigate host – pathogen interactions associated with Clostridioides difficile colonisation and infection. To achieve this, a novel fluidics tool will be developed in collaboration with Dr. Jérôme Charmet (WMG) that enables in vitro studies of the host-pathogen gut interface in a physiologically representative system. This can then be used to elucidate the key pathways that are modulated during a C. difficile infection through studying host-pathogen transcriptomics by dual RNA-Seq.
Dr Andrea Dsouza
Research Associate – Wellcome Trust
I completed my PhD in Medical Sciences at the Warwick Medical School, The University of Warwick in 2024, under the guidance of Professor Jérôme Charmet and Dr Chrystala Constantinidou. During my PhD, I focused on the development of a cutting-edge biosensor for efficient diagnostics of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and associated antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The technology demonstrated rapid and simultaneous UTI-AMR detection between 15 minutes to 2 hours for clinical samples. I am currently working on translating the technology for commercial diagnostic applications under the Medical Research Council – Impact Acceleration award. During my PhD research, I also investigated bacterial growth characteristics in functionalized hydrogels and polymer substrates.
Prior to joining Warwick, I worked at the Indian Institute of Science developing paper-based microfluidic technology for long-term storage and uniform rehydration of sputum samples. I also worked at the OmiX Research & Diagnostics start-up developing point-of-care diagnostics for bacterial infections.
I am now working as a post-doctoral researcher developing an advanced gut-on-a-chip millifluidic model to capture and evaluate the complex 3-way interactions of Clostridioides difficile, the gut microbiota, and the host response under the Wellcome Trust Award. This research will pave the way for understanding the mechanisms involved during Clostridioides difficile infection in the host gut. The project is multidisciplinary involving microfluidics, microbiology, cell biology, and engineering. The model will be developed in collaboration with Professor Jerome Charmet, He-Arc School of Engineering, Neuchatel, Switzerland.
William Channell
Research Assistant – Wellcome Trust
I completed my Master’s degree in Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham in 2017 and transitioned into research technician roles. My main areas of research involved host pathogen interactions and the immune response to pathogenic bacteria. I worked for 3 years looking into the adaptive immune response to Salmonella in Adam Cunningham’s lab, followed by 4 years researching the innate cellular immune response to Toxoplasma and Staphylococcus aureus in Eva Frickel’s lab.
In 2024 I joined Unnikrishnan lab as a Wellcome Trust funded Research Associate to help support research into the host pathogen interactions involved in Clostridioides difficile infections.
Richard Allen
PhD Candidate – MRC DTP
I completed my BSc (Hons) degree in Biology from the University of Bath in 2020 which included an industrial placement at ALS Pharmaceutical. I then joined the MRC DTP at Warwick Medical School where I completed my MSc degree in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and joined the Unnikrishnan lab as a PhD student.
I am working to elucidate the role of the Type VII secretion system of Staphylococcus aureus in the manipulation of macrophage cell death during infection. Also, in collaboration with Dr Avinash Shenoy at Imperial College London, I will investigate the innate immune responses of macrophages during S. aureus infection.
Kavana Bywater-Brenna
PhD Candidate – ARAP
I graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2018 with a MSci (Hons) in Microbiology, following which I worked as a visiting researcher investigating Streptomyces development. In 2020 I embarked on a PhD in the Unnikrishnan lab at the University of Warwick, as part of the A*STAR Research Attachment Programme (ARAP), in collaboration with the Genome Institute of Singapore.
My PhD project seeks to investigate microbiome interactions and their role on pathogen colonisation, with a particular focus on Clostridioides difficile colonisation and infection. Here, I aim to employ metatranscriptomic approaches to model these dynamic interactions between microbiota, pathogen and host, to better understand their roles during pathogenesis.
Jazzy Hill
PhD Candidate – MIBTP
I graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2021 with my bachelor’s degree in biomedical science before completing my master’s in medical microbiology at the University of Manchester. In 2022, I started the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) at the University of Warwick and joined the Unnikrishnan Lab. My research focuses on investigating the host-pathogen interactions which occur during Clostridioides difficile colonisation of the gut and characterising key host pathways and bacterial factors which are activated. As part of this, I aim to develop the current VDC model used in the lab to incorporate immune cells to enable the examination of the immune response in early infection.
Nerissa Juantuah-Kusi
PhD Candidate – ARAP
I graduated from the University of Warwick in 2022 with an Integrated Masters MBio (Hons) in Biomedical Science. I spent the master’s year of my degree based at the National Institute of Biological Standards and Controls (NIBSC) which is part of the MHRA. Following graduation and some time spent working as a quality assurance lab technician, I joined the Unnikrishnan lab in 2023 as a PhD student on the A*STAR Research Attachment Programme (ARAP).
My research focuses on investigating the potential ability of Staphylococcus aureus to induce specific microRNAs (miRNAs) that are important in the skin disease psoriasis. It is hypothesised that these specific miRNAs (once identified) lead to the activation of several host pathways including the over-activation of the Th-17 pathway resulting in hyper-proliferation of keratinocytes and skin inflammation. As an ARAP student, this project is in collaboration with Dr Prabha Sampath at the Skin Research Institute of Singapore.
Basil Fok
PhD Candidate – MIBTP
I graduated from the University of Surrey in 2020 with BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science, which included a sandwich placement at CEFAS for shellfish hygiene as a Laboratory Assistant. During the COVID-19 lockdown, I also worked as a Laboratory Technician in sample testing centres for a year. Then, I completed my MRes in Biomedical Research (Bacterial Pathogenesis and Infection stream) at Imperial College London in 2022 and continued to work as a Research Technician for 6 months.
I started my PhD within the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) in 2023, by first completing the interdisciplinary trainings and a rotation project at University of Birmingham. I then joined the Unnikrishnan group in April 2024. My research project focuses on identifying the molecular mechanisms of the interactions between C. difficile and gut microbiota species. I aim to identify the essential genes for C. difficile survival within healthy microbiota in a biofilm setting, screened by the established Transposon Direct Insertion site Sequencing (TraDIS) mutant library. The identified protein will then be investigated in vitro with the current VDC model and in vivo infection model to understand the three-way interactions between host cells, commensals and C. difficile.
The Unnikrishnan Lab 