Steve Kemp

My name is Steve Kemp and I am a PhD student at the Institute of Infection & Global Health, University of Liverpool, UK. My PhD focuses on antimicrobial drug use and the molecular epidemiology antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal E. coli.

I graduated from the University of Leeds with a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences after specialising in Medical Microbiology – my thesis involved analysing the carriage of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococci spp. on human skin and the potential selective pressure that acne medication has on S. aureus. The following year, I graduated with an M.Sc. in Infectious Diseases & Advanced Immunology, choosing this time to focus on the parasitic brain infections which lead to behavioural changes in humans.

In Kenya I was the first student on the ZED group’s newest flagship project, ZooLinK. Whilst in Kenya, I split my time between our field laboratory in Busia, Western Kenya and the International Livestock Research Institute. The main objective of my project is to understand the epidemiology and molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal E. coli in animals and humans, spanning some 1800km area. I will begin by investigating antimicrobial drug use in both humans and livestock, using various qualitative and quantitative approaches, and determine the prevalence antibiotic-resistant E. coli in farm animals and humans working in close proximity to them.