4 July 2023 – When new EMBO Member Ruth Massey went on adoption leave in 2012 she did not imagine that downtime spent with her young family would inspire pivotal approaches to understanding factors affecting the virulence of pathogenic bacteria. “I remember thinking this is an opportunity to take a step back and with a completely different mindset and routine to imagine different approaches we could take,” says Massey, who is Professor for Microbiome and Health Sciences at University College Cork, Ireland. “While our focus had primarily been on reductionist approaches looking at individual pathways in one or two bacterial strains, it really wasn’t helping us tackle the problem bacterial infections represent. What we needed was to find a way to bring the study of microbial pathogenicity into the newly burgeoning genomics era.”
Upon her return to the lab, Massey led the development of functional genomics techniques that profiled Gram-positive bacteria at the population level. The team was able to predict the toxicity of pathogens such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which kills thousands of people around the world each year. “Our approach aimed to look at the genome sequences of strains of Staphylococcus aureus and identify which mutations or genes caused a strain to be highly toxic versus another,” she says. “We studied big clinical collections in a broad manner, and by taking a step away we were able to better account for the full complexity of bacterial infections.”
When combined with information about the source of the infection, patient metadata, and antimicrobial resistance, the work presents opportunities to develop diagnostic tools and antibiotic strategies. “Different patients often need different treatments, and by putting what we have learned in the lab into clinical practice we can hopefully improve patient outcomes,” Massey says. “I have been inspired by EMBO Members who dedicate time to supporting other researchers. I hope to use my position as an EMBO Member to help scientists in a similar way, especially those in underrepresented groups. I can’t wait to get started.”
