The evolution of multidrug resistance in the bacterial pathogen Streptococcus suis

The aim of my PhD is to develop quantitative tools in vitro and in silico to investigate multidrug resistance in pathogenic bacteria, using the economically important zoonotic pathogen Streptococcus suis. This project will help mitigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and improve pathogen management strategies in agricultural systems with global benefits to food security.

To deliver this aim, this project has three objectives, each of which will form the basis for a research chapter in my PhD thesis:
1. Determine how differences in pathogenicity and genome size associate with mutation rates and the distribution of fitness effects of mutation in Streptococcus suis.
2. Develop methods for visualising and quantifying broad-scale trends in multi-drug resistance (MDR) phenotypes, to gain better insight into the evolutionary forces driving the spatiotemporal distribution of Streptococcus suis genotypes.
3. Develop a mathematical model of within-host evolution to study factors which affect the probability of isolates gaining AMR alleles.