Biography

I was born in Poznan, Poland and moved to England at the age of 13. I graduated with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences in 2013 from St. George’s University before completing a MSc in Infection and Immunity at University College London in 2014. Following this, I worked as a Research Assistant at University College London for nine months in Professor Timothy McHugh’s laboratory, where I specialised in tuberculosis research. I then started my PhD at the University of Warwick in September 2015 on a MIBTP studentship. The first year of my PhD comprised of: (i) training modules aimed at programming and statistics (ii) a three-month mini-project in Professor Gurdyal Besra’s laboratory at the University of Birmingham researching carbohydrate transporters in mycobacteria; (iii) a three-month mini-project looking further at carbohydrate transporters in mycobacteria under the supervision of Dr Elizabeth Fullam at the University of Warwick and (iv) working as a Policy Development Intern for three months at Cancer Research UK.

Project Overview

The title of my PhD is “Studies of nutrient uptake in Mycobacterium bovis – the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis” and it is jointly supervised by Dr Elizabeth Fullam and Professor Gurdyal Besra. Bovine tuberculosis is a disease of global importance resulting in estimated worldwide losses to agriculture of approximately $3 billion per annum. It is highly relevant to livestock farming as it directly affects animal productivity and the export of meat and dairy products. In addition, M. bovis can be transmitted to humans though the consumption of products derived from infected animals. The major causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (TB) is Mycobacterium bovis, a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and my PhD is aimed at obtaining a better understanding how M. bovis obtains its nutrients, survives and established infection in cows. A better understanding how M. bovis exploits essential nutrients will enable us to determine the essentiality of these uptake systems and the phenotypic profile of genetic mutants with the aim of developing biotechnological applications for use in the livestock industry.

Outreach Work

• STEM Ambassador, October 2016 - onwards

• Demonstrator for UG laboratories, University of Warwick

Magdalena Karlikowska

m.karlikowska@warwick.ac.uk

Twitter @maddalene91