We seek an enthusiastic student with strong interest in New Generation Food Microbiology for an exciting 4-year PhD studentship to investigate the use of third generation phage-based technologies to speed up monitoring and control of infectious Listeria monocytogenes in food and food preparation settings.

Listeria monocytogenes (LM) is a foodborne pathogen causing foodborne outbreaks with fatality rates varying between 20% and 30%. The bacterium is able colonise food processing environments, and subsequently cross-contaminate food products produced in these environments. In the EU the EFSA estimates an average of over 2000 episodes of severe foodborne outbreaks each year. The pathogen is also a big economic threat for the food industry. As reported by the FSA 2023, Listeria monocytogenes is the leading cause of product recall linked to ready-to-eat and minimally-processed food in the UK.

Conventional Food Microbiology can monitor the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in food based on the ability of the pathogen to grow and yield colonies on selective culture media. Despite being easy to use, culture is time consuming requiring at least 2-3 days for preliminary isolation followed by molecular or serological methods to confirm the identity of colonies. Considering the limited shelf-life of minimally-processed and ready-to-eat food, these tests are currently not ideal to meet needs of modern food production. As an alternative, a second generation of food microbiology methods based on DNA amplification (PCR, qPCR) can offer much faster results. However, but cannot distinguish between viable and dead cells as the detected DNA could potentially come also from dead cells so they cannot be used to test the safe of food and the efficacy of sanitation programmes.

Bacteriophages are ubiquitous viruses able to infect bacteria, and being obligate parasites they rely on host’s metabolism to replicate their progeny. This makes them ideal candidates to overcome the problem and to demonstrate the viability of bacterial cells in a sample.

The aim of the project is to investigate the used of the bacteriophages for the development of rapid-viability-tests to monitor the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in food and food contact surfaces in <1 working day. This project will provide the student with excellent training opportunities to develop strong transferable skills inside the landscape of “new-generation food-microbiology-techniques” including phage-assisted magnetic separations and a wide range of state-of-art and next generation molecular biology techniques including PCR, real time quantitative PCR, Isothermal Amplification approaches such as RPA, LAMP, LAMP-CRISPr, LAMP-LFA.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications should be made by emailing [email protected] with:

·      a CV (including contact details of at least two academic (or other relevant) referees);

·      a covering letter – stating your project choice, as well as including whatever additional information you feel is pertinent to your application

·      copies of your relevant undergraduate degree transcripts and certificates;

·      a copy of your IELTS or TOEFL English language certificate (where required);

·      a copy of your passport (photo page).

A GUIDE TO THE FORMAT REQUIRED FOR THE APPLICATION DOCUMENTS IS AVAILABLE

Please submit your documents in the following format only:

• each document should be submitted as a separate attachment and should be named as follows: [candidate surname, candidate name – [document]]. For example: Jones, Jamie – CV; Jones, Jamie – personal statement; Jones, Jamie – BSc transcript.
• Please submit .pdf documents where possible for your CV, personal statement, transcripts and certificates. Do not submit photos of certificates.
• Do not combine documents into one pdf. You may zip separate documents into a zip file to send via email if required.
• Please only send the Application Details Form 2025 as a Word document (not pdf), named as follows: Application Details Form – surname, name.
• When emailing your application, please use the email subject header: NEEDL Application 2025

Applications not meeting these criteria may be rejected.

Informal enquiries may be made to [email protected]

The deadline for all applications is 12noon on Monday 31 ^st March 2025.