Grace Blackwell gblackwell@ebi.ac.uk

gblackwell@ebi.ac.uk @graceblackwel1

Position

ESPOD Fellow

Affiliation

Wellcome Sanger Institute

Keywords

Microbiology, Genomics, Mobile Genetic Elements, Plasmids, Antibiotic Resistance

I am especially interested in elements that are involved in the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes. These include transposons that are able to move within a cell and plasmids that are able to transfer between different bacterial cells.

I started my research career at the University of Sydney, Australia, under Professor Ruth Hall, where I studied the evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a problematic hospital pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. During my PhD, I became especially interested in elements that are involved in the spread of AMR genes. These include transposons that are able to move within a cell and plasmids that are able to transfer between different bacterial cells. I came to Cambridge as an ESPOD fellow, undertaking a joint project between EMBL-EBI with Dr Zamin Iqbal and the Wellcome Sanger Institute with Dr Nick Thomson. Here, I was able to continue my study of mobility of AMR genes, but across all bacteria rather than within a single species. To do this, I have assembled a uniform dataset of over 661K bacterial genomes from the public databases. All of the assemblies have undergone general characterisation and a searchable index has been constructed. This dataset will allow me to explore the distribution and host range of transposons and plasmids on an unparalleled scale. A resource of this dataset has also been released to the community and will likely support a wide range of future studies. In addition, I also have an interest understanding how the carriers of AMR genes have changed over time and have been sequencing a collection of plasmids that were isolated from the 1960-1990s. Comparisons between these and contemporary plasmids could glean insights into how plasmids have evolved and changed to be the effective disseminators of AMR that they are today.

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About

This website

This website showcases the profiles of early career cis and trans women researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, and affiliated institutions. It originated as part of StepWide, a leadership programme that aims to support the next generation of female researchers.

We hope that by making the expertise and stories of early career women researchers more visible (and searchable!), will highlight how much they contribute to the research that is done in the University and affiliated institutions.

Who is it for

This website is designed for a wide audience, be it other researchers looking for particular expertise for a collaboration; the media looking for experts; those that are simply curious about what type of research is done in Cambridge, or those trying to get a clearer idea of what a ‘typical’ woman researcher in this years old institution does (there is no ‘typical’!).

The StepWide programme

StepWide was designed by 3 postdocs at Cambridge (see below for more on Marta, Laura and Cemre). It aims to support female postdoctoral researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, from any discipline, who feel that taking a step into leadership is not for them. The programme is designed to suit both early and more senior postdocs, providing them with the skills to challenge the current ideas of what a leader is, learn how to raise their public profiles, as well as a close and supportive network of peer-to-peer female postdocs.

StepWide ran for the first time in 2019/2021, and we are currently running a new series of workshops in 2022/2023. We will post updates here when applications open for its next run.

Founders

Laura, Marta and Cemre (left to right on the photo) met at The Postdocs of Cambridge (PdOC) Society, at the University of Cambridge, UK. When the Researcher Development (RD) Pitch Competition was announced in late 2018, they felt this provided the ideal opportunity to work together to develop a leadership programme for women postdocs. They saw a gap in the current leadership RD provision, with a lack of opportunities that challenge current leadership views. Their proposal was successful and obtained funding for a one year pilot, giving rise to the StepWide programme.

Laura Fachal is a Senior Staff Scientist at Wellcome Sanger Institute. She earned her BS in Veterinary, MSc in Biotechnology and PhD from University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She completed her postdoc at the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, University of Cambridge. She is also a Research Associate at Lucy Cavendish College.

Marta Costa is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Zoology. She did her undergrad in Biology in Lisbon, Portugal, followed by an MSc in Neuroscience at UCL in London. She then moved to Cambridge for her PhD, followed by a postdoc. She is also a Research Associate at Lucy Cavendish College.

Cemre Ustunkaya was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. She earned her BSc in Biological Science, followed by an MSc in Archaeometry at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She later moved to Australia for her PhD in Archaeology at The University of Queensland. She is also a postdoc affiliate at Newnham College.

Funding

Thanks and funding

StepWide was funded by the Researcher Development Pitch Competition which included support from the Researcher Development Programme, The Postdocs of Cambridge (PdOC) Society, the Postdoc Academy, the Postdoc Chairs’ Network and the Careers Service at the University of Cambridge. We are very thankful for their support. We would also like to thank Alba Gómez for her expert support with the first version of the website, and to Arian Jamasb for redesigning and implementing the newest version of this website. Finally, we thank Natacha Wilson and Rebecca Nestor for the advice and support they provided for the development of the workshops.

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