DrLuca Robinson

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the Allsopp Lab group based in the Guy Scadding Building, Royal Brompton Campus in Chelsea and part of the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI). Our research group is focused on, Gram negative bacterial secretion systems, regulation, biofilm formation factors, antimicrobial resistance and virulence of pathogens.

My research is primarily focused on elucidating the roles and diveristy of the Type VI secretion systems (T6SS) and its associated effectors in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from people with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), in addition to understanding the mechanisms P. aeruginosa uses to dominate over other microbes in the CF lung enviroment. Using a mixture of bioinformatic and molecular microbiological approaches, I am interested in exploring the genetic diveristy of the T6SS and other virulence mechanisms, why strains encode for a diverse array of T6SS effector subsets, and what evolutioniary benefits encoding novel competition and virulence mechanisms may provide to the individual strain. My research is supported by LifeArc and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

I gained my BSc (Hons) in Microbiology at the University of Liverpool. I then went on to complete my MSc in Medical Microbiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where I undertook a research project under the supervision of Dr Ozan Gundogdu on the prevalence and diversity of the T6SS in the gastroenteritis pathgoen Campylobacter jejuni. After a brief period working as a Scientific Officer in the Queen Mary UoL COVID-19 Lighthouse Laboratory and at the QMU Wolfson Institute Molecular Epidemiology (MEL) research team, I then commenced my PhD at Imperial College London in the Allsopp Lab where I focused on determining the genetic diveristy of the CDI and T6SSs in clinical isolates of the oppurtunistic pathogen P. aeruginosa and characterising novel toxins.