Modernising Medical Microbiology Consortium
UK
Dr John Paul is a medical microbiologist who has been collaborating with Anna Dumitriu for almost twenty years. After attending medical school, JP trained in medical microbiology and then later during the early 1990s he was entrusted with the responsibility of a research laboratory in Nairobi, Kenya which supported studies on bacterial infections in AIDS patients. After returning to the UK, he occupied various posts in clinical and public health microbiology. In 2008 he became a member of Modernising Medical Microbiology, a new research consortium that aimed to utilise whole genome sequencing as a technology to characterise bacteria and to track outbreaks of bacterial infection. He led projects on the transmission of Staphylococcus aureus, a cause of hospital-acquired infection and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a sexually transmitted bacterium which causes gonorrhoea. He was awarded the title of honorary professor by Brighton and Sussex Medical School. With Anna, he has supplied microbiological expertise for many of her projects, including the Normal Flora, the Bacterial Sublime, the MRSA quilt, and a plethora of artworks related to Modernising Medical Microbiology. JP is an enthusiastic bacteria tourist and has travelled widely in order to admire and investigate bacteria. He is also an avid amateur entomologist.
