Dr Marta Martins
Marta is a Research Fellow at the UCD Centre for Food Safety
Can you briefly sum up your research?
I study the way bacteria adapt to stresses along the food chain – how they adapt, why they become resistant and what we could do to avoid that type of adaptation.
Anything unusual or notable about your methodology?
In UCD, our molecular microbiology research looks at targeting specific markers in real time. We are moving towards whole genome sequencing, which gives us much more information. Food safety is applying improved technology to identify infections and outbreaks.
Are you collaborating with any other researchers?
We work with the University of Edinburgh, Food and Drug Administration in the United States, food industry on the island of Ireland and overseas. We are also collaborating with a food company to understand the microbiome of its production plant.
What are the potential practical applications of your research?
These involve understanding how bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics and how they are able to adapt and survive to different stress conditions. Based on this, we can possibly identify biomarkers (for example, genes related with efflux systems; specific mutations in target genes) that can be used in the development of strategies to control these bacteria.
I’m also using non-antibiotic adjuvant compounds that can enhance the activity of known antibiotics to overcome resistance. Ultimately, these will allow us to improve safety in the food chain and the community.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in doing this research?
Research funding in the area of antibiotic resistance doesn’t seem to be a priority for major funding agencies in the Republic of Ireland when compared with the UK, despite being a critical issue.
In more practical terms, infrastructure for bioinformatics analysis of “omics data”, and relevant industrial and clinical models are also lacking. The models we have available in the laboratory can’t always mimic the conditions we have in the environment, veterinary, or human settings.
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