Research in Focus: Genetic Profiling of Biofilms
As part of #BiofilmWeek, we’re highlighting interesting and exciting biofilm research from across our network and partner research institutions.
We interviewed Joe Parker, an NBIC Interdisciplinary Research Fellow at the University of Southampton about his research which investigates the genetic profiling of biofilms.
What is your area of research and what industry does this research or technology relate to?
I am investigating methods to identify the species of microbes within different biofilms by reading their DNA sequences and matching them to our database a bit like a fingerprint. This is crucial anywhere you have unknown slime such as water systems, hospital infections, polluted rivers etc.
Dr Joe Parker presenting his work at the Lab Innovations 2024 Conference in October.
What are the problems/unmet needs that your work hopes to address?
At the moment our tools for working out what’s in a sample are slow – they take days or weeks. This means, for instance, we only get the full picture about pollution events or nasty hospital infections once they’ve become a real problem, and we end up reacting instead of preventing them. DNA profiling technology could cut these times to hours, so that’s what we’re chasing.
Are there any highlights/discoveries from your work you can tell us about?
This is work in progress right now, but one of the problems with tracking pollution in rivers is that water moves on from the source of pollution quickly! We’re testing whether biofilms (fixed slime that doesn’t move downstream) could retain a signature or memory of past pollution events, in the form of the types of bacteria which live in them.
Have you undertaken any public engagement activities? If so, please share any highlights with us.
I’ve done Pint of Science plenty of times, been on Youtube, given talks at Cafe Scientifique and worked with community organisations. Plus the Southampton Uni science festival. Always fun to interact with the general public and see our work through their eyes. We get to do amazing things every day!
What is one thing we can do as scientists to positively impact equality, diversity and inclusion?
Most academics are consciously keen to improve EDI and the representation of non-white, non-traditional communities from wide socioeconomic backgrounds amongst science workers and leaders. We do OK at attracting a wide (ISH) range of graduate students to begin science training. Unfortunately the truth is as you go up the career ladder, white middle class men like me take up more and more of the space! We need to be more curious about why that is, proactive about creating practices and career structures to let others flourish, and provide better pay, conditions and transparent career advice for under-represented groups. None of this is novel but we need to take it seriously(1).
Is there anything you think could be done to address unconscious bias and create a culturally inclusive environment within biofilm research?
We need to take time to nurture and champion the next generation of diverse science leaders, and make sure we don’t fall into the trap of judging them by outdated career milestones.
References:
(1) Forrester, N. Diversity in Science: Next Steps for Research Group Leaders. Nature. 2020. 585:S65-S67. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02681-y
Find out more
If you are interested in learning more about this work and would like to connect with Joe please contact NBIC at nbic@biofilms.ac.uk.
Dr Joe Parker DPhil BSc ARCS, Interdisciplinary Research Fellow at the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) and Lecturer in Biology at St. Hilda’s College Oxford.
