About the Project
Bacteria have a remarkable capacity to survive in rapidly changing and often hostile environments. Antibiotics present them with an extreme challenge; however, some bacteria can survive exposure without becoming resistant. This phenomenon, known as antibiotic tolerance, is an important yet poorly understood contributor to treatment failure and persistent infections.
This project will investigate antibiotic tolerance across major human pathogens, including ESKAPE and WHO priority pathogens, to understand its genetic and evolutionary basis. We will ask whether tolerance is governed by shared mechanisms across bacterial species or pathogen-specific survival strategies, how these mechanisms evolve, and how tolerance influences antimicrobial resistance. This will uncover the fundamental principles of how pathogens survive antibiotics and could ultimately inform new strategies to improve the treatment of bacterial infections.
The project offers the unique opportunity to combine bacterial genetics, high-throughput phenotyping and experimental evolution with innovative computational approaches, such as population genomics and machine learning. This integration will bridge fundamental laboratory discovery and clinical isolate collections, advancing antimicrobial research with real-world relevance.
Building on an established research programme on antibiotic tolerance in Staphylococcus aureus, this project extends the research across pathogens, while also providing multidisciplinary training. The student will develop expertise across experimental and computational microbiology with scope to shape the project around their interests and emerging findings. They will join a highly supportive and inclusive research environment with complementary expertise across the supervisory team, and benefit from a long-standing collaboration with the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research, providing access to world-leading expertise in bacterial genomics and digital microbiology.
Funding notes:
This is a PhD studentship with the Midlands Integrated Biosciences Training Partnership, funded by BBSRC and in partnership with the University of Warwick, University of Birmingham, Aston University, Harper Adams University, Coventry University, and the University of Leicester.
For more details please visit: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/ or https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/about/college-of-life-and-environmental-sciences/midlands-integrative-biosciences-training-partnership
References:
Kobras, C.M. (2026) ‘Transforming antibiotic tolerance research through genomics’, Genome Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-026-04257-x.
Kobras, C.M., Losa-Mediavilla, C., Littlefair, J.C., Cummins, E.A., Woolley, C., Ko, S., Raikwar, P.S., Jolley, K.A., Sheppard, S.K. and Stracy, M. (2026) ‘Genetic context drives evolution of divergent antibiotic survival phenotypes in Staphylococcus epidermidis’, bioRxiv [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.29.728712.
