Dr. Emily Stevens

E-mail: emily.stevens@zoo.ox.ac.uk

My research focuses on the genetics, toxins, and evolution of opportunistic pathogens within the host microbiome using GWAS and experimental evolution approaches.

Publications

Stevens, E., Morse, D.J., Bonini, D. et al. 2022. Targeted control of pneumolysin production by a mobile genetic element in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Microbial Genomics 8.

Jangir, P.K., Ogunlana, L., Szili, P., Czikkely, M., Stevens, E., Yang, Y., Yang, Q., Wang, Y., Pál, C., Walsh, T.R., MacLean, C. 2022. The evolution of colistin resistance increases bacterial resistance to antimicrobial peptides and virulence. bioRxiv.

Stevens, E., Bates, K.A., King, K.C. 2021. Host microbiota can facilitate pathogen infection. PLoS Pathogens 17, e1009514.

Drew, G.C.*, Stevens, E.*, King, K.C. 2021. Microbial evolution and transitions along the parasite-mutualist continuum. Nature Reviews Microbiology 19, 623-638.

Ekroth, A.K.E., Gerth, M., Stevens, E., Ford, S.A., King, K.C. 2021. Host genotype and genetic diversity shape the evolution of a novel bacterial pathogen. The ISME Journal 15, 2146–2157.

King, K.C., Stevens, E., Drew, G.C. 2020. Microbiome: evolution in a world of interaction. Current Biology 30, R265-R267.

Yokoyama, M., Stevens, E. et al., 2018. Epistasis analysis uncovers hidden antibiotic resistance-associated fitness costs hampering the evolution of MRSA. Genome Biology, 19.

Stevens, E. et al., 2017. Cytolytic toxin production by Staphylococcus aureus is dependent upon the activity of the protoheme IX farnesyltransferase. Scientific Reports 7.

Recker, M., Laabei, M., Toleman, M., Reuter, S., Saunderson, R.B., Blane, B., Török, M.E., Ouadi, K., Stevens, E. et al., 2017. Clonal differences in Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia-associated mortality. Nature Microbiology 2, 1381-1388.

Education

2020 PhD University of Bristol – “Investigating the genetic basis for bacterial toxin production using functional genomics”

2015 BSc Biology University of Bath

Awards

2021 Linacre College Oxford Junior Research Fellowship

2019 2nd Prize for oral presentation, Staphylococcus Great Britain & Ireland (StaphGBI) conference at University of Warwick

2019 2nd Prize for poster, School of Cellular & Molecular Medicine away day at University of Bristol

2016 1st Prize for poster, University of Bath Graduate Research Afternoon