Celebrating the people behind the bioscience

Driving cohesion for biofilm research: Professor Jeremy Webb

Biofilms are an ongoing risk to human health, causing an estimated 65-80% of infections. Layers of microorganisms can grow on a surface together, creating a ‘film’ that protects them against disinfectants and antimicrobials. This means they can more easily survive in food or hospital settings.

Jeremy Webb is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Southampton (UoS) and a Co-Director for the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC).

BBSRC has supported Professor Webb’s research since 1996, funding his PhD at the University of Manchester. This was followed by a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship at the UoS, where he discovered, together with colleagues in Australia, that nitric oxide could break up biofilms. The grant began a career journey that cemented Professor Webb as a leading voice in biofilms research.

In 2017, BBSRC and Innovate UK funded phase 1 of the NBIC, an Innovation and Knowledge Centre led by four Co-Directors at the universities of Southampton (Professor Jeremy Webb), Liverpool (Professor Rasmita Raval), Nottingham (Professor Kim Hardie), and Edinburgh (Professor Cait MacPhee), and CEO Professor Jo Slater-Jefferies. NBIC works to enable collaboration, innovation, and commercialisation in biofilm research. It is now a network of 59 research partners, 23 industry partners, and 8 international partners. Phase 1 supported:

• 83 proof of concept (PoC) projects
• 34 Flexible Talent Mobility Awards
• collaborative partnerships with the USA, Singapore, and Argentina
• new tools and technologies, spin-outs, and policy impacts.

Professor Webb directly supports several NBIC projects, plus partnerships with Singapore and the US. The partnerships include forming the International Biofilm Standards Task Group, driving international standardisation for biofilm testing methods.

NBIC has now entered phase 2 with a stronger focus on developing technologies. Professor Webb will continue to jointly lead this effort, facilitating future training, international and industrial collaboration, and research development. 

The Animal Welfare Research Network: supporting early career researchers

The BBSRC-funded Animal Welfare Research Network (AWRN) was established in 2016. The network unites animal welfare researchers and generates opportunities for networking, collaboration, knowledge transfer and early career researcher (ECR) development.

In the network’s new phase, led by Dr Gareth Arnott of Queen’s University Belfast, there is a renewed focus on supporting the next generation of animal welfare researchers. A recent funding boost from BBSRC, alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has stimulated new initiatives to support ECRs. These include a mentoring and lab exchange scheme and ‘Kick-start funding’ of up to £7,000 for pilot research.

This Kick-start funding has supported researchers such as Dr Helen Gray, a Lecturer in Pig & Poultry Welfare at Newcastle University, to explore new research avenues. Dr Gray’s pilot work into invertebrate welfare has supported her career, including her establishment as an independent researcher.

Renewed funding from BBSRC also supports AWRN’s strategic objectives, including running annual meetings and workshops. Dr Wasseem Emam, founder and director of Ethical Seafood Research, attended the 2023 ECR Networking Workshop during his PhD. Here, he met contacts for FAI Farms, an organisation focused on improving animal production systems. This led to a partnership aimed at bringing their fish welfare assessment app to the Nile tilapia farming sector in Egypt and beyond. The app is now being used by 350 practitioners on over 1,000 medium- to large-sized farms and is thought to have improved the lives of at least 260 million tilapia. Improved fish welfare enhances the productivity of farms.

The AWRN is currently administering Technologies in Animal Welfare seed funding, supported by BBSRC, to further enable collaboration between academia and industry, stimulating technological advances that improve animal welfare.