Hello and apologies for not introducing myself sooner- I’m Jenny and in October I joined Thomas and Johanna in the Evolution of Resistance group as a PhD student. My PhD started off with a whistle stop tour of the world of medical mycology when I attended the 8th Trends in Medical Mycology conference in Belgrade, Serbia. There I met many of the leading names in medical mycology and heard of the fascinating research being done on important human fungal pathogens, such as Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida auris, and how knowledge is being integrated into clinical management of the illnesses they cause. I was able to put names to the faces of several people I hope to collaborate with during the course of my PhD and I returned from the conference full of enthusiasm and ideas for my research proposal! For my project I will be looking at the background levels of Aspergillus fumigatus across South England and how these differ by rural and urban environments, season, land use and fungicide spraying. This will involve collecting plenty of air and soil samples from difficult locations and at varying times throughout the year and directly culturing Aspergillus, as well as extracting DNA for qPCR and sequencing analysis. Today is exciting because I received my first soil samples, collected as part of an ongoing project based at the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. These will form the basis of my pilot field study to see if I can culture and extract DNA from Aspergillus fumigatus in surface soil that has been frozen for long periods of time. My supervisors are Prof. Matthew Fisher of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London (ICL), Dr Andrew Singer of CEH, and Dr Marta Blangiardo of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at ICL. As mentioned in a previous post, my project is funded by NERC and is part of the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet (SSCP) DTP run by Imperial’s Grantham Institute (so many acronyms!). I am fortunate also to have Public Health England (PHE) as my project CASE partner and will have the opportunity to work in their labs in my second or third year. Prior to starting my PhD I spent 2.5 years working as a Research Assistant in Mat Fisher’s group researching fungal diversity on amphibian skin and how this might protect them from Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis- a disease-causing chytrid fungi that causes morbidity and mortality in amphibians and has devastated frog populations worldwide. I am hoping the many skills I learnt in this role relating to fieldwork, labwork and data analysis will stand me in good stead for my project- in particular knowing that things CAN and WILL go wrong, especially in lab work, so to maintain infinite patience and not lose faith! I look forward to sharing more as my project progresses.
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Fisher Lab
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