Arthur Thompson

Career-track Research Leader

Research Area: Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens

Contact Details:

Institute of Food Research,
Norwich Research Park,
Colney, Norwich,
NR4 7UA
UK
arthur.thompson@ifr.ac.uk

Research interests

Salmonella is an important foodborne pathogen that continues to pose a major and unacceptable threat to human health throughout the world. In 2008, S. Typhimurium and S. Enteriditis were responsible for 12,100 and 131,468 cases of gastroenteritis in the UK and EU respectively (DEFRA & EFSA Zoonoses Reports). Salmonella is the most frequent cause of foodborne illness in the EU. Worldwide, Salmonella is responsible for an estimated 20 million cases of salmonellosis and the typhoidal serovars, S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi cause an estimated 200,000 human deaths per year. Our research programme aims to identify the genetic and metabolic basis of Salmonella virulence. We use state of the art molecular microbiological techniques such as next-generation transcriptomics (RNA-seq) to identify how Salmonella regulates its virulence gene expression programmes. We have also identified how Salmonella metabolism adapts during the infection process. This has resulted in the construction of Salmonella strains that are being developed as potential vaccine candidates. In order to predict Salmonella virulence and identify new virulence determinants we are also using bioinformatic approaches to model the infection-relevant transcriptional and metabolic networks.