Dr Sean Meaden
BBSRC Discovery Fellow

Profile

Biography

My research is focused on the interactions between bacteria and their viruses, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape such interactions. My work uses a combination of experimental evolution and genomic approaches to address these topics.

I completed my PhD at the University of Exeter working with Professor Britt Koskella. The project focused on how the environment shapes the evolution of bacterial resistance in the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae.

After a brief post doctoral position at UC Berkeley I returned to Exeter (and microbiology) to work with Professor Edze Westra studying the ecology and evolution of the bacterial immune system, CRISPR, in the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

In 2019, I was awarded a Marie-Skłodowska Curie Fellowship to join the lab of Professor Peter Fineran at the University of Otago, New Zealand. During this fellowship, and subsequent return phase at Exeter, I used metagenomic data to describe the environmental distribution of CRISPR across natural microbial communities.

This work forms the foundation of my BBSRC Discovery Fellowship, held at York. For my outreach work, I have used DNA sequencing methods to teach concepts in microbial ecology and worked with Phages for Global Health- a programme that delivers training in phage biology to scientists in developing countries.