In my lab we research a group of viruses that specifically infect bacteria and these are known as bacteriophages or phages.

So they are natural predators of bacteria and we can use them to treat human infections and there has been a recent resurgence in the interest in phage research due to rising rates of antibiotic resistance.

It’s a huge problem, all of the modern medicine will fall apart if we can’t treat infections, if we we won’t be able to do transplants or give people chemotherapy or even simple surgeries could become life-threatening.

So bacteria can protect themselves from viruses using immune systems, so rather like what we have. People studying how these viruses that infect and kill bacteria, how bacteria protect themselves actually discovered CRISPR-Cas and we now have figured out how to take that out of bacteria, the bacterial immune system and use it to edit genes in any organism.

And that system would not have ever been discovered without fundamental research going on into bacteria and these viruses that infect them. I think there are a whole host of other systems that are likely found in bacteria that they are using to protect themselves from phages and they are waiting to be discovered.

It’s an amazing career and you know I try and impart that excitement for science on my students. I love doing research, I can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s the excitement of discovering new biology.