Lab Members - details

Dr Arthur Thompson

I joined the IFR in 1996 and became a member of Jay Hinton's group in 1999. I played a major role in the setting up of the IFR microarray facility including the construction of the microarray printing robot. I now provide advice and help in the printing and use of microarrays and am involved in several national and international collaborations. My personal interests include using microarrays to study the effect of global regulators on pathogenicity in Salmonella, studying gene expression in bacteria isolated from infected cells and ppGpp and Salmonella virulence .

• Genetic regulation of SPI1 and SPI2 in Salmonella
• ppGpp

Anne Brown

I started working for IFR in 1985 in what was then called the Central Typing team.  In 1989 I was asked to apply as secretary to Dr. (now Prof.) Mike Gasson, then Head of Genetics and Microbiology Dept.  From 1989 – 2005 I have worked with almost everyone who has passed through the Genetics and Microbiology Dept. (which later became known as Food Safety Science Division).  In 2005 I was asked to take over as Scientific Administrator to Prof. Jay Hinton, Prof. Mike Peck, Prof. Ian Johnson, Dr. Ian Roberts and Prof. Tim Brocklehurst to work with their teams.

As well as working with these scientists and their teams I also worked with Prof Sue Southon and Prof Roger Fenwick as their administrator in the Enterprise Unit and since the retirement of Prof. Sue Southon just with Prof Roger Fenwick as International Co-ordinator for IFR.

Dr. Mark Alston

Mark has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and a background in biotechnology and food science. Prior to joining the group in 2003, he had completed a M.Sc. in Computer Science (project: “The Visualization of Bioinformatics Data” ) because of his great interest in applying computer technology to biological challenges. He is concerned with software tool development and evaluation, and microarray & proteomic data analysis, storage and handling.

Dr. Corinne Appia-Ayme

I joined Jay Hinton’s Lab in March 2007 as a post-doc in Molecular Microbiology. My project aims to unravel the mechanisms used by Salmonella enteritidis to infect the reproductive tract of hens.  This work is part of the multidisciplinary SafeHouse project co-ordinated by Dr. Filip van Immerseel at the University of Ghent.

• SafeHouse

Dr.Steve Bowden

Steve joined the group in 2006 after completing his PhD in Biochemistry. His current project is to determine what metabolites are utilised by Salmonella typhimurium during its infection of macrophages

• Metabolism

Dr. Vittoria Danino

 I joined the Hinton lab as a post doc in July 2002 to work on enteropathogenic E.coli (ETEC). I am now investigating how Salmonella is able to infect chicken eggs as part of the Veterinary Training Research Initiative with the University of Bristol and the Institute of Animal Health. This is a multidisciplinary project looking at the influence of immune development, commensal flora, and behaviour on Salmonella infection in chickens and pigs

• E. coli vaccine project
• VTRI

Dr. Carl Harrington

I have recently completed my PhD. I joined the group in November 2006 to help in the running of the IFR Microarray facility and to further my knowledge in this area. I am also interested in the bacteria inhabiting the human GI tract and developing a microarray to profile them.

•  Microarrays

Dr. Isabelle Hautefort

I joined IFR in 1999 as a postdoc scientist in the Molecular Microbiology group.

Here I further developed a system based on gfp transcriptional fusions to detect and quantify the level of activity of virulence gene promoters during infection.

This system allows questioning gene expression in a large number of environments and will contribute to determine the host cell-type specificity of Salmonella gene virulence gene expression.

•  In vivo expression

Dr. Gitte Knudsen

I joined Jay Hinton’s Lab in October 2007 after completing my PhD in food microbiology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. My project is a collaboration between the research teams of Prof. Tim Brocklehurst and Prof. Jay Hinton and is a part of the BIOTRACER project. The objective is to determine the impact of stress conditions on the bacterial response, growth and survival of Salmonella during the slaughter chain. 

•  BIOTRACER

Dr. Sacha Lucchini

Sacha joined the group in 2000 and helped to set up the microarray facility, his focus being on data analysis.

He is now using microarray technology to study the role of the global regulator StpA in Salmonella with particular attention to virulence.

•  Microarrays
•  Genomic indexing
•  Genetic regulation of SPI1 and SPI2 in Salmonella
•  Nucleoid associated proteins

Karen Prior

I graduated in Biomedicine in 2007, from the University of East Anglia, and have joined Jay Hinton’s lab as a PhD student to investigate the role of bacterial nitrate metabolism in the colonisation of the mammalian gastrointestinal tract by Salmonella typhimurium. This work is to be carried out in collaboration with David Richardson’s laboratory at UEA. I am interested in the interaction of pathogenic gut microbes with their mammalian hosts, and the disease states which may ensue.

•  Nitrate Metabolism

Chris Rice

Chris is a PhD student working on the early stages of growth in Salmonella Typhimurium. He completed his Undergraduate Degree in Microbiology in 2005 at the University of East Anglia and subsequently received his MSc in Biotechnology from the University of Essex. Chris has a strong interest in the biology of microbes and how they can be utilised by industry.

• Lag Phase