Dr Ben Temperton, Associate Professor of Microbiology, University of Exeter

Following a career as a software engineer where I was (amongst other things) involved in developing the NHS Spine, I retrained as a marine microbiologist, completing a PhD at Queens University Belfast, followed by a postdoc at Oregon State University. I then returned to the UK to establish a phage group at the University of Exeter. During the pandemic, I led the South West group of COG-UK for the genomic surveillance of COVID19. Working with local health teams opened my eyes to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, so I immediately pivoted my research to designing and optimising next-generation phage therapeutics. I established the Citizen Phage Library, which provides personalised phage therapeutics to clinicians around the world for compassionate use. We also recently set up a consortium to design and implement the first UK clinical trial of phage therapy for cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis patients.