The Environmental Healthcare Unit Team

Senior Laboratory Staff
	Dr S.A. Wilks Dr Wilks graduated from Brunel University with a first class honours degree in 1994 and completed her PhD at the University of Southampton in 1998. She was the first member of staff to join the Environmental Healthcare Unit in 1999, working as a postdoctoral research fellow. Dr Wilks has worked on a range of projects within the Unit, including the survival and persistence of pathogens in sewage and animal manures, their survival on metal alloys and the rapid detection of pathogens in drinking water. Within these research projects she has gained experience handling many category 2 and 3 agents including E. coli O157, Listeria, Campylobacter, Helicobacter, Mycobacterium and Legionella. Dr Wilks has presented her work at many international meetings and has run specific workshop sessions. Contact:
	Dr J. Webb Further Information Contact:
	Dr L. Weaver Contact:
	Dr R. Hervé After graduating in France in 1995, Dr Hervé came to University of Surrey and obtained an upper second class honours degree in microbiology in 1996, then an M.Sc. in cell biology back in France in 1997, and a second M.Sc. in immunology from University of Surrey in 1998. He successfully submitted his PhD at the University of Southampton in 2003. After a first post-doc within the Division of Clinical Neurosciences (University of Southampton), he has joined the Environmental Healthcare Unit in 2005 to take part on the research on Prion contamination of surgical instruments, funded by the UK, Department of Health, and is also working on new in vitro assays for the diagnosis of prion contamination in collaboration with French partners, funded by DEFRA. Contact:
	Dr A. Foster Dr Foster initially studied applied and Human Biology at Aston University graduating with upper second class honours in 1999. During this bachelors degree he specialised in clinical microbiology and also gained recognition for an industrial placement year spent training and researching at the clinical microbiology unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Upon completing his bachelors degree, Dr Foster proceeded to complete an MSc in Information Technology; a qualification he supplemented with a research placement at Oulu University, Finland. In 2005 Dr Foster completed his studies gaining his PhD studying the cell surface attributes of the pathogenic basidiomycete C. neoformans. This period of research was spent with the Inflammation and Infection group based at Aston University. Dr Foster is now using novel microscopy techniques to investigate, in situ, the disinfection of pathogenic bacteria. Contact:
	Mr M. Ashworth Contact:

Technical Support
	Mrs S. Warnes After graduating Mrs Warnes joined Southampton General Hospital performing research into a host of pathogens. In 2001 Mrs Warnes joined the Environmental Healthcare Unit performing research into Cryptosporidium on farm produce. Mrs Warnes has recently started a new project investigating Clostridium perfringens contamination in sewage treatment products. Contact:
	Miss H. Pinchin After gaining a second class honours degree in environmental biology from the University of Reading (2002) in which she concentrated on microbiology, Miss Pinchin decided to gain laboratory experience at Glaxo-SmithKline, Maidenhead, involved in the quality assurance of dental healthcare products. Miss Pinchin then continued in the field of quality assurance by becoming a training officer for staff working in new drug development and scale-up at the Institute of Drug Technology in Melbourne, Australia and in 2005 she joined the Prion research section of the Environmental Healthcare Unit looking at the inactivation and decontamination of prion bio-burden from surgical surfaces. Contact:
	Miss R. Collin Miss Collin graduated from the University of Southampton with a 2i in Zoology in 2005. She had a keen interest in microbiology during her course and has joined the Environmental Healthcare Unit, prion section to continue the work initiated on the inactivation and decontamination of prion bio-burden from surgical surfaces. Contact:

Post-Graduate Students
	Miss L. Reiman Miss Reiman was awarded an upper second class degree from the University of Southampton in 2002. Subsequently, she took on a temporary technical support position before starting her Ph.D at the Environmental Healthcare Unit looking into the emerging species of campylobacter and the possible associated health risks. Contact:
	Miss A. Sihota Miss Sihota was awarded an upper second class degree from the University of Southampton in 2003. She is presently working on her Ph.D. at the Environmental Healthcare Unit looking into methods of recovery and isolation of pathogens e.g E coli, within human food. Contact:
	Mr R. Howlin Mr Howlin graduated from the University of Durham in 2005 with an upper second class degree in Biomedical science. He is currently completing a CASE award PhD studentship in collaboration with STERIS Ltd, and is looking into the effect of chemicals including enzymes on the resistance of prion amyloid plaque structure and infectivity. Contact:
	Miss J. Warner Miss Warner gained a first class honours degree in Plant Science from the University of Southampton in 2005. In a slight shift of emphasis she has used her background knowledge and has embarked on a CASE award PhD studentship in collaboration with Vitacress Salads Ltd investigating, in-situ, the colonisation of bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli on salad leaves. Contact:
	Miss M. Giao Contact: