Dr Caroline Chilton

Profile

I am an academic microbiologist working within the Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) Research Group. In 2015, I was awarded a University Academic Fellowship at the University of Leeds within the 'Infection, Inflammation and Immunity' theme.  This has enabled me to begin to transition to independence.

I joined the HCAI research group in 2010 as a post doctoral research fellow working for Professor Mark Wilcox.  My research focused on investigation of the interplay between the gut microbiota, antibiotics and Clostridium difficile.

In 2010 I was awarded a PhD from the University of Edinburgh.  My thesis focused on 'Comparative proteomic analysis of Clostridium difficile' and was supervised by Professors Saheer Gharbia, Haroun Shah, Ian Poxton and SP Borriello.  The work was undertaken within the Department for Bioanalysis and Horizon Technologies, The Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England), Colindale, London.

Research interests

I am a Microbiologist working within the Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) Research Group, with research interests in Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), antibiotic resistance, and the intestinal microbiota.

Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) poses a huge burden on healthcare facilities worldwide. Recent years have seen a rise in HCAI caused by multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO). These hard-to-treat infections massively increase the burden on healthcare systems in terms of prevention, detection, tracking and patient management, which is likely to increase over the next decade. The bacterial populations of the gut (the intestinal microbiome) are key to HCAI, both in terms of their prevention, but also by harbouring resistant organisms and resistant genes.

My research utilises in-vitro modelling of the intestinal microbiota to investigate three main research areas; Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), antibiotic resistance, and the characterisation of the microbiome.

Student education

I provide microbiology related lectures for ungraduate courses in the faculties of Medicine and Health and Biological Sciences

I act as a personal tutor for medical students

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's
• Healthcare Associated Infection Research Group
• Infection and antimicrobial resistance

Current postgraduate researchers

• Mr Daniel Pickering