Optical microscopy is an invaluable tool in modern microbiology. In the “Imaging Microbes in Human Health, Disease & Death” group we, use a variety of microscopy approaches focusing on develop a better understanding of how bacteria behave, develop and interact with humans in various contexts.
Certain focus is placed on how Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) is behaving during urinary tract infections (UTI). UPEC undergoes extraordinary morphology changes during the infection cycle, and efforts are made to understand the regulation in space and time of these shape changes. Using a wide range of imaging approaches such as single-molecule, TIRF and structured illumination microscopy new knowledge is generated that will inform the development of new therapeutics for otherwise infections hard to treat.
Work within this theme also focus on how the human microbiome can be used to study time since death during human decomposition. Working closely with UTS forensics we are developing approaches for future forensics applications by combining microscopy and genomic sequencing.
