What we do

Our aim is to improve our understanding of the propagation of infectious agents in the population and design more effective vaccine programmes by conducting research on the carriage and transmission of bacteria and viruses in the upper respiratory tract. Located in the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and under the stewardship of Professor Adam Finn, our lab team process, store and analyse human samples using molecular and culture methods.

We currently support several studies that combine molecular methods and microbiological techniques to detect and quantify different pathogens. Every week, our busy team of research technicians process hundreds of throat swabs, nasal swabs and/or saliva samples collected from children and adults across the UK. Thanks to our high-throughput equipment, we can extract nucleic acid from these samples and perform multiple real-time polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) efficiently.

Currently we are mainly studying the following pathogens:

• Streptococcus pneumoniae
• Neisseria meningitidis
• SARS-CoV-2
• Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
• Influenza (“Flu”)
• Other common respiratory viruses (such as adenovirus, metapneumovirus, bocavirus, parainfluenza, rhinovirus, and enterovirus)

Microbiology Work

We use microbiological techniques such as cell culture, optochin testing, bile salt, Gram stain and oxidase tests, to identify and isolate S. pneumoniae and N. meningitidis from saliva, nasopharyngeal (NPS) and oropharyngeal (OP) samples from adults and children. We also use microscopes to visually identify the pathogens.

Molecular Work

We run molecular tests such as automated extraction and purification of bacterial and viral nucleic acids using high-throughput instruments such as the QIAsymphony SP. We then carry out individual and multiplex PCR tests on the nucleic acid extracts using a variety of other high-throughput platforms (QIAgility pipetting robot, QuantStudio^TM 7 Flex and KingFisher^TM Flex Real-Time PCR machines) to determine the presence or absence of pathogens and their relative density. Sometimes, we also use genotyping PCR tests to determine the precise subtype of certain pathogens present in the sample.

Using high-throughput equipment means we can test 96 or even 384 samples at a time, which allows us to process hundreds or even thousands of samples from large clinical studies such as AvonCAP, Be on the TEAM and TOP.

Contact

If you are interested in working with us, please contact bvc-micro-molecular-lab@bristol.ac.uk