Dr Mais Maree will use the funding to investigate antimicrobial resistance.
Dr Mais Maree, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), has been awarded a prestigious Wellcome Early Career Award.
Bestowed by The Wellcome Trust, the award is designed to support promising early-career researchers to develop innovative and independent research.
Dr Maree will use the funding to investigate how antimicrobial resistance emerges and spreads. Her project, entitled ‘Drivers and Barriers: Understanding Antimicrobial Resistance Gene Transfer in MRSA Biofilms and Colonisation’, will begin in October 2026.
Led by Dr Maree in collaboration with colleagues at the RVC and Imperial College London, the work will combine microbiology, genetics, bioinformatics and ex vivo approaches to identify the factors that control antimicrobial resistance gene transfer in S. aureus.
Dr Maree will screen thousands of bacterial mutants to identify genetic factors that act as barriers to DNA uptake, then investigate how different environments influence gene transfer and the conditions that favour the emergence and spread of resistant strains.
Dr Mais Maree said: "Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest challenges facing both human and veterinary medicine. While we understand that bacteria can acquire resistance genes, we still do not fully understand what determines when this process occurs.
“This fellowship provides an exciting opportunity to uncover the mechanisms that drive resistance evolution in S. aureus and ultimately improve our ability to predict and prevent the emergence of resistant strains."
She hopes the findings could provide a stronger scientific foundation for understanding how resistance emerges and spreads. Looking ahead, they could also help inform strategies for preventing its spread and supporting more effective use of antibiotics.
Dr Maree's mentor, Professor Jodi Lindsay, added: "Congratulations to Mais for being awarded one of these very prestigious fellowships.
“The research will reveal new pathways critical for MRSA to acquire and maintain antimicrobial resistance genes, enhancing our understanding of the basic biology, public health implications and future interventions to reduce antimicrobial resistance infections in humans and animals."
Image (C) RVC.
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