Wyres lab

Kelly is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow with a background in bacterial population genetics and genomics. She completed a DPhil on the genomic evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae (another bacterial pathogen) at the University of Oxford in 2012. Following a move to Australia, Kelly spent 2.5 years in an industry research role at IBM Research – Australia, where her work primarily focussed on the use of computing to facilitate the adoption of high-throughput DNA sequencing in clinical and public health microbiology labs.

In September 2015 Kelly transitioned back to an academic research role as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Microbial Genomics lab led by Kathryn Holt. It was here that Kelly developed her enthusiasm for Klebsiella genomic epidemiology and evolution, initially though the exploration of K. pneumoniae capsule synthesis loci drawing on her biological knowledge about bacterial capsule genetics (gained through her doctorate) and then on her experiences at IBM in designing user-friendly genomic analysis tools.

In 2020 Kelly started building her own team from within the Holt lab and in 2021 the team span out into an independent research group.

Outside of the lab Kelly is busy parenting an energetic toddler and tries to find time to practice pilates.

Ben is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow who applies genomics to study the metabolism of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Previously, he has worked across different domains including vaccination, pathogen detection, novel antimicrobial discovery as well as genomics to analyse and track pathogens. The list of agricultural and human pathogens Ben has worked with include Clostridium perfringens and Campylobacter hepaticus (chicken), E. coli and Streptococcus uberis (cow), Klebsiella pneumoniae and Burkholderia pseudomallei (human). Also experienced with Lactobacilli (Ligilactobacillus, Lactiplantibacillus) and Bacillus species.

Outside the lab he is a keen runner, soup-maker and long-weekend enjoyer.

Tom is a Research Fellow working on K. pneumoniae sero-epidemiology and the ongoing development of Kaptive and Kaptive Web, including improved accuracy for the prediction of capsule phenotypes from K. pneumoniae genome assemblies.

Helena is investigating associations between K. pneumoniae metabolic diversity and clinical risks, including multi-drug resistance and hospital transmission. As part of this work she has developed a curated and validated pan-metabolic reference model, which captures the genetic and metabolic diversity of >500 K. pneumoniae species complex isolates.

Kalani is using metabolic modelling to investigate the association between K. pneumoniae species complex metabolic traits and ecological niche.

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 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 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).