Centre staff
Dr Karen Stanley
Senior lecturer in microbiology
Phone 0114 225 3047
Email k.stanley@shu.ac.uk
Research interests
Application of molecular microbial ecology techniques to understand the role of the hospital environment in hospital acquired infections
Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) and the devastating impact of infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant organisms are high on the political and public agenda. There is a growing awareness among patients and the public of the transmission of HAIs and the importance of effective infection control measures to reduce the incidence and impact of infections on patients.
We are investigating the role of the hospital environment as a potential reservoir of hospital acquired infections and applying environmental molecular microbiology techniques to characterise the microbial ecology, including the distribution of bacterial species, mobile genetic elements and antibiotic and biocide resistance genes, in key environments of wards and theatres. This will allow us to establish the effectiveness of these tools in the clinical environment to inform the debates on hospital cleanliness and methods to asses the microbial burden and effectiveness of cleaning regimes in hospitals.
Current funding and key collaborators
Hospital Infection Society - major project grant in collaboration with Dr Tom Smith (BMRC)
Recent publications
Duncan SH, Leitch EC , Richardson AJ, Laven RA, Flint HJ, Stewart CS and Stanley K (2004) Effects of esculin and esculetin on the survival of Escherichia coli O157 in human faecal slurries, continuous flow simulations of the rumen and colon and in calves. British Journal of Nutrition 91: 749-755.
Stanley KN and Jones K (2003) Cattle and sheep farms as reservoirs of Campylobacter. Journal of Applied Microbiology Symposium supplement 94: 104S-113S.
Fitzgerald C, Andrew S, Jones K and Stanley K (2001) Use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and flagellin gene typing in identifying clonal groups of Campylobacter jejuni in farm and clinical environments. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67 1429-1436.
James CE, Allison HE, Flint HJ, Stewart CS, Sharp RJ, Saunders JR, McCarthy AJ and Stanley K (2001) Lytic and lysogenic infection of diverse Escherichia coli and Shigella strains with a verocytotoxigenic bacteriophage. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67: 4335-4337.
McWilliam Leitch EC , Duncan SH, Stanley KN and Stewart CS (2001) Dietary effects on food safety. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 60 : 247-255.
PhD students
- Claire Bradshaw - Molecular microbial ecology of hospital ward environments: a new tool to understand the role of the environment in hospital acquired infections (Aug 2010-Aug 2013)
- Khaled Alshamkai - Microbial characterisation of hospital sinks and drains: potential reservoirs of infection? (Jan 2010-Jan 2013)
