Wastewater Epidemiology for Clinically Relevant AMR Surveillance

• Honours
• PhD

Students will work within the wastewater epidemiology space to investigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and pathogen dynamics in the context of population level surveillance and public health risk.

Projects may focus on clinically relevant ESKAPE pathogens and involve selective culturing of priority organisms from wastewater, colony PCR-based isolate confirmation, and targeted metagenomic analysis of resistance determinants, or identifying emerging superbugs through single-cell microbial genomics.

Students will develop core molecular biology skills in selective culturing, colony PCR, targeted sequencing, and analysis of complex microbial datasets.

Depending on interest, students may also focus on or extend their work through epidemiological modelling to explore population-level transmission patterns, surveillance strategies, and links to broader clinical or public health trends. These projects provide interdisciplinary training across microbiology, molecular biology, single-cell genomics, bioinformatics, and epidemiological modelling.

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.