• Ruweyda Sayid

    Ruweyda is a PhD student who co-founded the Phage Collection Project in 2023. Ruweyda works in many aspects of our initiative, isolating phages for our biobank, advocating for phage therapy and attending outreach events. Ruweyda’s PhD specifically focusses on investigating phages that could be used to treat antibiotic-resistant infections. Furthermore, Ruweyda wants to gain a greater understanding into how phages may interact with bacteria in complex microbial communities.

  • Dr. Franklin Nobrega

    Franklin currently works as an Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and helped to establish the Phage Collection Project with Ruweyda back in 2023. Franklin’s lab focusses on the arms-race between bacteria and phages from a biological, ecological and therapeutic perspective. Additionally, Franklin's lab hopes to design pioneering phage therapy approaches to help patients struggling with resistant bacterial infections.

  • Yi Wu

    Yi is currently working on her PhD project which investigates the mechanisms that bacterial immune systems possess to protect themselves against phages. Additionally, Yi is researching about how these mechanisms interact with one another to increase the bacteria’s level of defence. Alongside her project, Yi analyses and isolates phages from the water samples that the project receives and adds them to our biobank.

  • Francesca Merrick

    Francesca is a laboratory technician who has been working with us during an 8-week long summer project. Her role has involved collecting water samples from sources in the UK, and analysing them for phages back at our lab. Any phages that Francesca isolates get added to our phage biobank. Francesca also plays an important role in the project's outreach efforts, educating young biologists about phages and their potential to treat resistant bacterial infections.

  • Robyn Pringle

    Robyn is a biology technician at Peter Symonds College, Winchester. Robyn is responsible for organising the project’s Phage Isolation course for students at Peter Symonds, and also plays an important role in making the project achievable and accessible to colleges and schools.

  • Esme Brinsden

    Esme has recently graduated from the University of Southampton with an undergraduate degree in Biology. Esme is passionate about educating citizens on the antimicrobial resistance crisis and is keen to research and understand whether the public would be willing to accept phage therapy if it were to become available in the future. She is involved in the Phage Collection Project’s communications and outreach strategies, running the project’s social media pages and website.

  • Yathavi Sivanandan

    Yathavi is a recent Biomedical Sciences graduate from the University of Southampton. She is passionate about tackling the global challenge of antibiotic resistance and believes phages offer a promising solution to this issue. As an author for the Phage Collection Project’s blog, Yathavi writes engaging content for a diverse audience, to increase awareness about phage therapy and its potential to transform healthcare.