Julia joined the Maiden Lab in 2001 as a BSc, gained a DPhil on "The Relationship of Neisseria Lactamica to the Pathogenic Neisseria: Implications for Vaccine Development" under Martin's supervision in 2006, and retired as a senior researcher in his group in 2014.  

I obtained a degree in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from Bristol University, followed by a Masters of Research in Biosciences from Cardiff University. During my masters I received training in bioinformatics and chose to do a project on the topic of pathogen genomics. This project was in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and involved genomic analysis of a global collection of 300 Shigella flexneri genomes. Following completion of my masters, I continued working in Cardiff as a research assistant on a project in collaboration with Public Health Wales involving E. coli bacteraemia isolates.

I have undertaken my DPhil in Oxford in the Maiden Lab, using genomic analyses to research archived outbreak isolates of Campylobacter. This project was funded by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infections, and was in collaboration with Public Health England (PHE). I spend the majority of my time working within the Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit at PHE, where there is a large collection of historic isolates available. I am hoping that sequencing these past outbreaks may offer some insight into future outbreaks and provide information about long-term trends in campylobacteriosis in the UK.

We are very sad to announce the death of Alison Cody, who passed away on 13 May 2020, at Sobell House, Oxford. Ali was a long-standing member of the Maiden Laboratory who joined the group in 2004, having completed her DPhil at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford. A highly valued member of the group, Medawar community, and Department, over her time with us Ali established a substantial international reputation in Campylobacter research, especially the genomics of antimicrobial resistance. She established the core genome MLST scheme for Campylobacter and leaves a substantial body of work attributing sources of human disease.  

In addition, she contributed to many other aspects of the Department’s work including undergraduate teaching, supervision of graduate and undergraduate projects, and mentoring visitors and colleagues from around the world. Characteristically, despite her illness, she was still working with us up to a few weeks before her death and leaves a legacy of important research work. She shall be very much missed. 

I trained in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford, and worked as a clinician in medicine, paediatrics, and general practice in the UK and Africa before more formal research training with an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  I have undertaken research in the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford, the Oxford Vaccine Group, Oxford, the Kenya Medical Research Unit, Kilifi, Kenya, the Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia, the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi and two periods of time working with Professor Martin Maiden in the Department of Zoology, Oxford. I am affiliated to the group as a Research Associate. 

The main focus of my research has been in vaccination against meningococcal disease, immunological memory, risk factors for carriage and transmission of Neisseria meningitidis, and the effects of vaccination on carriage.  I am also interested in the role of non pathogenic Neisseria species in the development of natural immunity against Neisseria meningitidis.  Other research interests include understanding transmission and immunity against Non-typhoidal salmonella. 

On 1 August 2022 I was assigned to the new post of Section Administrator for Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Groups in the Biology department. Locations of these groups are varied (Peter Medawar Building, the main Biology Research Building, Dunn School of Pathology and Biochemistry). I have an advisory and signposting role, intersecting between group members and the administrative teams. I also assist the Section Head (Martin CJ Maiden) in organising Section specific events. 

I have been working in the Department of Zoology (now Biology) since 2002, interrupted by a short engagement at the Department of Psychiatry from 2009 – 2011.  

Although I do not have an academic background, I have always had a huge interest and love for science, in particular Biology. Originally from Vienna, Austria, I have always been keen to work for large academic institutions, for example the Austrian Academy of Sciences/Institute for Environmental Sciences and the Natural History Museum in Vienna.  

My background was in BSc.Bio-Archaeology and Msc.Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. I am currently using bioinformatics, data science, phylogenetics and AI to investigate Campylobacter Jejuni’s Fluoroquinolone resistance across time and across food chain. I am also hoping to use AI to be able to predict resistance using the genomic sequences.  I am co-organiser of the multi institutional Chicken journal club. If you are interested to join please send me an email. 

My research interests lie around the host-microbiota interactions both in humans and other species. In my DPhil project I am studying the microbiota in the wild: using a novel wild house mouse study system I am looking at temporal dynamics in the gut microbiota and studying how this reflects to the host physiology.  

More details of the house mouse study can be found here  http://www.knowleslab.com/study-systems/skokholm/ 

My main research theme, building on doctoral studies with Martin Maiden, has been in integrating bacterial population genetics in the public health epidemiology of human infectious disease. My wider research interests focus on developing and applying quantitative and novel research methods to practical public health problems. In this regard "focus" may be a misnomer as this work is fairly diverse. My background is in medicine, statistics, and public health epidemiology. 

I obtained my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at The University Of Manchester, during my degree I completed a placement year in a medical diagnostic company focusing mainly on qPCR assay development and optimisation. During my degree developed a strong interest in population genomics, microbiology and bioinformatic/statistical approaches to sequence data. After graduating I was offered a role as  a data analyst position in an ancient DNA laboratory in where I conducted bioinformatic analysis using genotyping by sequencing data. I obtained a MPhil at The University of Manchester in Biostatistics early 2020 focusing on Bayesian statistics using mainly summary statistics and different approaches to mendelian randomization.  My most recent role I’m currently undertaking is an Research Assistant within the Maiden Group,  investigating and characterising the population structuring of Neisseria Gonorrhoeae focussing mainly on PorB. 

I was born in Guinea and lived in different African countries and Haiti before moving to Canada where I obtained my BSc (2008) and MSc (2011) in Biochemistry from McGill University. During my master I studied macrophages innate immune response to bacterial infection, comparing their transcriptome following Salmonella typhimurium and Legionella pneumophila infections. Upon completion of my degree, I moved to Mali for an internship at the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC) in Bamako where I developed a great interest in the molecular approaches applicable for diagnosis of infectious diseases. In 2012, I started working for the Center for Vaccine Development in Mali (CVD-Mali) on the MenAfriCar consortium project, studying Neisseria carriage across the African meningitis belt (AMB) and the impact of the New Serogroup A conjugate vaccine (MenAfriVac) on carriage. It is during this project that I had my first interaction with the Maiden group as I spent a 1-year placement in Oxford to characterize the samples collected in the different sites by advance molecular techniques. I then received a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship to start my DPhil with the group in 2014, in collaboration with CVD-Mali. During this time, I studied the “Molecular epidemiology and ecology of Neisseria species in the African meningitis belt”. My work helped characterized the different non-pathogenic Neisseria circulating in the AMB alongside Neisseria meningitidis; it also led to the discovery of novel Neisseria species. 

For my post-doctoral research, I have moved back to West Africa where I have decided to study the oropharyngeal microbiota and its links to health and diseases. My main research interests are focused on improving our understanding of the environmental and genetic factors that influence the onset of bacterial meningitis to better predict and eventually prevent epidemics. I am also interested in developing tools to improve infectious disease surveillance systems at the national and regional level and have been involved in the MeVacP project led by members of the group.

I have recently received the CRICK African Network- African Career Accelerator Award to conduct a study entitled “The oropharyngeal microbiome dynamics and invasive bacterial diseases”  which I am going to implement in Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan and Korhogo) within a collaboration between the Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifique en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), the West African Centre for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) in Ghana and the Francis Crick institute in the UK.  

Alternative Email: kanny.diallo@csrs.ci  

Research interest

Infectious Disease, Molecular Epidemiology, Genomics, Molecular Microbiology, Bacterial evolution, Disease Surveillance, Metagenomics.