Matthew Twigg

I am currently a research associate in biotechnology working within the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute at Ulster University. I have interests and expertise in molecular microbiology, marine microbiology and microbial biotechnology. I am currently working on the MARISURF project, a Horizon 2020 funded consortium investigating biosurfactant production by marine bacteria. It is the aim of the project to identify biosurfactants which can be exploited for biotechnological applications in various industrial sector acting as more environmentally sustainable alternatives to chemically derived surfactants. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham where, working in collaboration with Plymouth Marine Laboratory, I investigated the interactions between marine algal species and their indigenous, epiphytic bacterial communities. My doctoral research demonstrated for the first time that bacteria influence the germination of the seaweed Ulva via quorum sensing signalling molecules. After completing my Ph.D. in 2012 I carried out a three-year industrially funded postdoctoral research project at Queen’s University Belfast investigating a novel biomarker for the detection of bacterial driven exacerbation in cystic fibrosis patients and the role bacterial infection plays in the protease/ anti-protease homeostatic balance within these patients.