Julian Parkhill

My current research interests centre around the evolution of bacterial pathogens; their origin, transmission and adaptation to selective pressure. I primarily use genomic approaches to address these, and over the last few years my group has used large-scale population genomics to identify the global origin and routes of spread of many human and animal pathogens. We have addressed adaption to the host, to antibiotics and to vaccine pressure, most recently developing new bacterial genome-wide association approaches to identify genetic determinants responsible for this adaptation. Our work has clear translational benefits, and we have been working with local hospitals, national and international agencies, as well as the commercial sector, to enable these, while maintaining our own focus on more basic research. I was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2009, the American Academy of Microbiology in 2012, and the Royal Society in 2014.