Stephanie d'Arc

Stephanie d’Arc is a technician working under Dr Annette Jepson and Professor Shiranee Sriskandan in work-stream 2: Network in Clinical Infection which is co-directed by Kathy Bamford.

The aim of her project is to establish an epidemiological tool within the Diagnostic Microbiology laboratory that will help the Infection Control team to manage suspected outbreaks of Clostridium difficile diarrhoea in real time. Currently, such typing systems are available only in reference laboratories and the results may take many weeks to be returned to the Infection Control team. By developing this assay locally it is expected that clusters of cases may be recognised early, which will enable any infection control problems to be addressed promptly.  In addition, the ability to identify particularly virulent strains will trigger the use of a more aggressive clinical management protocol that will improve the patient outcome. There will also be an opportunity to establish whether there is a link between any new strains and clinical disease severity.

 

Background

Stephanie is currently in the write up status of her PhD within the Section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity at Imperial College London, under the supervision of Professor Kathy Bamford and Professor Neil Fairweather. Her PhD has involved research into the gastrointestinal pathogen C. difficile. This has included the epidemiology of C. difficile within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and in patients with persistent/relapse infections, the evaluation of new and current diagnostic methods and virulence factors in certain strains.

Prior to this, Stephanie spent three years as a Trainee Clinical Microbiologist at Hammersmith Hospital. Rotations included the bacteriology, virology, parasitology and mycology sections of pathology laboratories including principles of laboratory management and the epidemiology of disease.

She has also completed a MSc in Medical Microbiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BSc in Biology at Queen Mary, University of London.