At the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research (IOI), created in 2021 to advance antimicrobial research, Oxford’s graduate students are among those contributing to the search for solutions to tackle this growing threat to global health.
34 DPhil students from around the world are based at the IOI, each part of a focused research project that works to develop new antibiotics or study the spread and impact of AMR around the world.
Among them is Kate Cook, a DPhil student, who is currently undertaking research in Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital in Kano, Nigeria to investigate the causes of wound infections in surgical and orthopedic wards. Through her work, she aims to understand the role of insects like flies, cockroaches and ants in spreading bacteria in tropical climates.
Working closely with two research assistants in the hospital – Maryam and Firdausi – Kate acts as a microbiological detective, identifying which kinds of bacteria are causing infections in patients, then investigating whether these bacteria are also present on hospital surfaces, and in insects caught on the wards.