Kathy Bamford
Prof Kathy Bamford
Professor Kathy Bamford’s role in the Centre is as the main link between the academic and clinical microbiology laboratories and is working in the laboratory based work-stream 2 “network in clinical infection diagnostics” working with Shiranee Sriskandan in molecular pathogenetic research. The aim of this work is to identify factors affecting bacterial transmission and virulence and then develop novel diagnostics and interventions to address the various strains encountered in the hospital, community and national settings.
As a lead of the Trust microbiology laboratories, Professor Bamford will help determine the major shifts in disease patterns related to Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and Clostridum difficile identifying leading clinical questions that can be answered most easily by laboratory-based research.
Professor Bamford is also supervising two of the Centre PhD students. Matt Percy, who is co-supervised by Mark Enright, will be looking at the application of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing to address some of the most pressing clinical questions about staphylococcal infection. These may include, addressing whether the emergence of MRSA or MSSA infection within a unit stemmed from a single entry point, with subsequent person to person spread, and whether certain subclones are hypertransmissible. Molecular typing will also be used to determine whether certain clones share common phenotypic or genotypic features that render them invasive. Ultimately, the work will demonstrate the feasibility of using SNP to understand transmission and virulence.
Zoe Seager, who is co-supervised by Neil Fairweather, will be investigating the heterogeneity of cell wall proteins in epidemic strains of C. difficile. Proteomic information from our current research has identified bacterial cell wall proteins that are distinct between key pathogenic strains of C. difficile, namely “hypervirulent” 027 and “standard” 001 ribotypes. This studentship will investigate the expression of these proteins in clinical strains and will develop antibody-based technologies on clinical samples. If successful, these technologies will require transitioning to create a more clinically useful test for diagnosis.
Background
Kathy is a Consultant Medicial Microbiologist based at Hammersmith Hospital, a lead of the Trust microbiology laboratories and Visiting Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunity at Imperial College. Her expertise is the aetiology diagnosis and management of human infection with her main research interests in the immunopathology and management of infection.
See personal page for more details
Contact: k.bamford@imperial.ac.uk or her PA on e.bashford@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8383 2063
