Genomic analyses to design vaccines against Klebsiella pneumoniae

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major cause of antibiotic resistant hospital-associated infections that can be extremely difficult to treat. The World Health Organization has identified this bacterium as a high priority pathogen for development of novel control strategies, such as vaccines targeting the polysaccharide (sugar) capsules that surround Klebsiella cells. Each K. pneumoniae produces a single capsule type, but more than 75 distinct types have been defined through serological techniques, and a further 70+ are predicted on the basis of gene content variation within the so-called ‘capsule synthesis locus’. This poses a problem for vaccine development because a single vaccine can target a maximum of 20 different capsule types. Our team develops and applies genomic analysis approaches to understand the diversity of Klebsiella causing human infections, and directly inform novel vaccines. In this project you will use these approaches to explore capsule diversity among Klebsiella causing human disease in Australia and beyond, to identify the most commonly occurring capsule types, predict capsule structures and/or understand fine-scale capsule variations. Outcomes for you as a student: • Experience in large scale genomic sequence analysis including bioinformatic workflows and high-performance computing- key skills in the modern microbiology research tool-box • Contribution to research that will support vaccine design Resources you will be supported by: • World-leading bacterial genomics research team • Access to a large collection of high-quality bacterial genome sequences • Remote-access, high-performance compute cluster What you will bring: • A passion for microbiology research to reduce the global burden of antimicrobial resistance and/or inform novel vaccines and other control strategies • A background in biology, including microbiology and/or molecular biology • An interest in learning genomic analyses, including command-line computing i.e. telling the computer what to do by typing a series of words rather than using a mouse to point and click. You don’t need prior experience in this, just a keen interest and demonstrated capacity to learn! The project can be tailored to suit individual research interests and degree levels.