The impact of antibiotics on the early life microbiota

We are born sterile, but soon become colonised by complex microbial communities, termed the microbiota which are critical to our health. Importantly, the acquisition and development of the early life microbiota can be influenced by numerous factors and antibiotic treatment is suggested as among the most significant, leading to an immediate reduction in microbial abundance and species diversity.
Antibiotics are highly prescribed during the first few years of life, particularly when infants are residing in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). In addition, exposing the early life gut microbiota to significant levels of antibiotics may create an important reservoir of resistant strains and of transferable resistance genes, the so called "resistome", which may correlate with the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant and more infective pathogens.

The goal of this PhD studentship is to determine how antibiotic administration in NICU infants influences the overall microbiota composition and how intensive antibiotic treatment promotes acquisition and carriage of antibiotic resistance genes. This PhD studentship represents an excellent training module for a wide range of microbiology, and bioinformatic techniques utilising human infant samples including; bacterial culturing, RT-PCR, next generation sequencing, and bioinformatics tools. Norwich is a leading microbiology and microbiota research centre and represents an excellent platform for a starting scientific career.