Wyres lab

Kelly is a computational microbiologist with a background in bacterial population genetics and genomics. She is Associate Professor, Research Group Leader and Co-Lead for the Infectious Diseases Genomics program at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Monash University. She is also a Centre Leader for the Monash University Centre to Impact AMR and Co-Lead for the KlebNET Genomic Surveillance Platform, a multi-national consortium working to develop and harmonise resources that support global genomic surveillance for Klebsiella and Escherichia coli. Kelly has received numerous research funding awards, including a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Investigator Grant, Australian Research Council Discovery Project awards and Gates Foundation Investment Grants. In 2024 Kelly was named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and in 2025 received the Australian Society for Microbiology’s Frank Fenner Award. Read about Kelly’s research journey here.

Tom is a postdoctoral researcher working on K. pneumoniae sero-epidemiology and the ongoing development of our tools for typing capsule and lipopolysaccharide loci from bacterial genome data- Kaptive and Kaptive Web. This includes improving Kaptive’s accuracy for prediction of K. pneumoniae capsule phenotypes. Tom holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Hina is a data management specialist leading a community effort to collate and curate a standardised meta-data collection for publicly available Klebsiella genome sequences. Hina holds a Master’s in Public Health and International Health from The University of New South Wales.

Naosie is a postdoctoral researcher developing and applying novel Kaptive databases for Klebsiella oxytoca O antigen loci and E. coli capsule loci, to explore the sero-epidemiology of these important pathogens. Naoise holds a PhD in Clinical Microbiology from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Kalani is a third year PhD student using metabolic modelling to investigate the association between K. pneumoniae species complex metabolic traits and ecological niche. Kalani previously completed a Masters of Data Science and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) at Monash University, focussing on Shigella sonnei genomics.

Hassan is a PhD student working to identify K. pneumoniae genomic and metabolic factors associated with isolates that cause urinary tract infections in hospitalised patients. Hassan is co-supervised and based with Prof Kathryn Holt, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.

Jiahui is a PhD student investigating the composition of K. pneumoniae surface membranes and the impact of porin mutations. Jiahui is co-supervised and based with Prof Trevor Lithgow, Monash University, Australia.

Abhinaba is a PhD student investigating the prevalence and diversity of bacteriocins within the K. pneumoniae population. Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides produced by the bacteria to kill competing cells. Abhinaba is co-supervised by Dr Ben Vezina and Prof Sheena McGowan (Monash University).