Matt Holden
Reader
Medicine
University of St Andrews
United Kingdom
Biography
I started my research career with a PhD at Warwick University, studying the distribution and regulation of cryptic antibiotic genes in environmental and plant pathogenic bacteria. As a postdoc I then spent four years at the University of Nottingham, investigating bacterial communication. Initially working on the role of N-acyl homoserine lactones in quorum sensing in Pseudomonads, and then moving ‘languages’ to investigate peptide autoinducer-dependent regulation of virulence in Staphylococcus aureus. I then joined the The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2000, and have involved in the analysis of the genomes of a wide range of bacterial pathogens including Yersinia pestis, Salmonella typhi, Streptococcus pyogenes, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Burkholderia cenocepacia and S. aureus. With developments in next generation sequencing, the focus of my work has shifted towards populations studies, investigating genome diversity and pathogen evolution, as well as the application of sequencing in clinical microbiology. In 2013 I moved to the Medical School at University St Andrews to establish a research group focusing on experimental and translational pathogen genomics.
Research Interest
My research interest include: the survival and evolution of MRSA, and probing the link between a pathogen’s genotype and virulence, and also the application of genomics in clinical setting to combat hospital-associated infections.
Publications
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Harkins, CP, Pichon, B, Doumith, M, Parkhill, J, Westh, H, Tomasz, A, de Lencastre, H, Bentley, SD, Kearns, AM & Holden, MTG 2017, 'Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus emerged long before the introduction of methicillin into clinical practice' Genome Biology, vol 18, 130.
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Steward, KF, Robinson, C, Holden, MTG, Harris, SR, Ros, AF, Pérez, GC, Baselga, R & Waller, AS 2017, 'Diversity of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus strains isolated from the Spanish sheep and goat population and the identification, function and prevalence of a novel arbutin utilisation system' Veterinary Microbiology, vol 207, pp. 231-238.
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Björnsdóttir, S, Harris, SR, Svansson, V, Gunnarsson, E, Sigurðardóttir, ÓG, Gammeljord, K, Steward, KF, Newton, JR, Robinson, C, Charbonneau, ARL, Parkhill, J, Holden, MTG & Waller, AS 2017, 'Genomic dissection of an Icelandic epidemic of respiratory disease in horses and associated zoonotic cases' mBio, vol 8, no. 4, e00826-17.
