Mission Possible – 23rd June 2022.
The extended call for the 2022 Short Term Missions (STMs) has ended, with five applications received currently under review. STMs are small travel grants open to students and early career researchers from any of the OHEJP member institutes, which allow the sharing of scientific expertise, methodologies, equipment, and facilities to harmonise existing One Health approaches and facilitate collaborations.
Here is an update on STM activities in 2022.
Ingrid Cardenas Rey (OHEJP-VIMOGUT PhD student at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, The Netherlands) is currently visiting the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She will gain skills in genomics and bioinformatics for her laboratory work on constructing Escherichia coli strains to study the effect of antibiotics on Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) genes transfer in the chicken gut microbiome. Her PhD project examines the chicken gut microbiome development in relation to colonisation with ESBL E.coli, which will advance understanding of gut microbiome function as a potential barrier to antimicrobial resistant bacteria.
Laura Gonzalez Villeta (OHEJP-EnvDis PhD student at the University of Surrey) completed her mission to the Dutch National Institute for Health and Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands during May. She worked on validating modelling tools to assess the risk of human salmonellosis based on environmental factors using multiple data sources. The EnvDis project aims to develop modelling tools to determine the public health risk of a foodborne zoonosis using information of relevant environmental factors, with Salmonella as the model pathogen.
Emma Brook from the Animal and Plant Health Agency works on foodborne zoonoses and spent one month at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute for her mission, associated with JRP BIOPIGEE. She conducted experiments to examine what happens to bacteria that survive disinfectant treatment, due to their protective biofilms, by repeated exposure to disinfectants of bacteria in biofilm. The knowledge gained from this research could be used in the application of disinfectants for the control of foodborne bacterial pathogens.
Marieke de Cock (OHEJP-DESIRE PhD student at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands) recently completed her mission to the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany, which was awarded in 2021. Her mission focused on examining different detection methods for specific zoonotic pathogens carried and transmitted by rats, to gain greater insights into pathogen transmission and prevalence between species.
Marieke said about her mission: “Not only did this STM result in new data for my PhD project, it also strengthened the collaboration between FLI and RIVM, both in the form of sample/data sharing and publishing papers together. Besides all the hard work, I also had a lot of fun during my stay! I can recommend all my fellow PhDs to work at another research institute for a while, not only to broaden your horizon, but also to have an unforgettable experience and to meet other researchers!”.
Learn more about the Short Term Missions awarded in 2021 and 2022.
