Investigating Clinically Relevant AMR Pathogens in Wastewater Systems

• Honours

This project offers students the opportunity to contribute to emerging research on AMR in wastewater, which is increasingly recognised as an important reservoir for clinically relevant resistant bacteria.

Students will investigate clinically relevant ESKAPE pathogens, using selective and chromogenic culturing, isolate purification and targeted sequencing.

Students will develop skills in selective and chromogenic culturing, colony PCR, targeted sequencing and targeted resistance screening. Students will analyse microbiological phenotypic, and molecular data to characterise resistance profiles and identify priority resistance genes.

Through this work, they will help evaluate the feasibility of a culture-plus-PCR workflow for routine wastewater surveillance. The project provides valuable training in environmental microbiology, AMR assessment and One Health-aligned surveillance approaches.

Jex lab investigates parasite biology and advanced parasite diagnostics, and epidemiology using advanced sequencing technologies and integrated bioinformatics.

Current research spans the genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics of major human parasites, including soil transmitted helminths and key diarrhoeal pathogens, alongside wastewater surveillance of viral pathogens and AMR monitoring.

Our lab combines molecular microbiology, next-gen sequencing, computational genomics, and epidemiological modelling to address questions of transmission, pathogen dynamics, and surveillance utility.

The laboratory provides an interdisciplinary environment with expertise across wet laboratory methods, genomics, data science, and quantitative analysis.

Key collaborators include CRC-SAAFE, water industry partners including Melbourne Water, public health agencies, and the Australian CDC, enabling strong translation of fundamental and applied research into environmental and public health surveillance contexts.