Gwen Knight

Gwen Knight

Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Mathematical modeller of antibiotic resistance.

People

A group of us meet every other week for FortKnight where we have presentations either on our own work or a problem we are facing / someone else’s work. Our fortnightly meetings are usually around 6-8 people who meet regularly as part of “KnightGroup”. We also have 6monthly next steps meetings where we talk about future plans and reflect on acadmic progress (and academia!).

Christmas_celebration_22

Research fellows & postdocs

  • Naomi Waterlow
    • Research Fellow (2023 - present), based at LSHTM
    • Project: Working on my MRC CDA fellowship exploring patterns of resistance variation by age.
    • Funding: MRC CDA

Research Assistants

  • Abel Kjaersgaard
    • Research Assistant (2024 - present), based at LSHTM
    • Project: Working on WellModTB
    • Funding: Wellcome

Interns

With the right level of support I welcome Interns to my group - do get in touch if you can apply for supportive scholarships etc.

  • Jakob Verhoeff
    • Medical student and intern (Dec 2024 - March 2025)
    • Antibiotic usage variation across England
    • Funding: University of Utrecht

PhD Students

I have been very luck to supervise lots of brilliant PhD students, many of them funded through the MRCLID scheme. In December 2024 the four of them that have been under Jodi Lindsay and my supervision came together to celebrate Dr Wildfire’s Viva, including Dr Leclerc over from Paris!

wildfire_phd

My current PhD students are funded mostly by the MRCLID and LiDO doctoral training programmes - great cohorts at LSHTM and across Bloomsbury. Do check out the application procedure which opens in November/December if you are interested in joining as a PhD student.

Current PhD students

  • Naomi Fuller
    • PhD Student (2020 - present)
    • Project: Resistance evolution in the presence of combination therapy (focus on TB)
    • Funding: LiDO fellowship
    • Co-supervisors: Tim McHugh (UCL) and Nick Davies (LSHTM).
  • Alastair Clements
    • PhD Student (2021 - present)
    • Project: Modelling antibiotic combination therapy and generalised transduction
    • Funding: MRCLID fellowship
    • Co-supervisors: Jodi Lindsay (St George’s, University of London)
  • Max Wallat
    • PhD Student (2022 - present)
    • Project: MRSA gene transfer
    • Funding: MRCLID fellowship
    • Co-supervisors: (primary): Jodi Lindsay (St George’s, University of London)
  • Chaelin Kim
    • PhD Student (2023 - present)
    • Project: Modelling efficacy of new regimens for MDR-TB
    • Funding: MRCLID fellowship
    • Co-supervisors: (primary): Finn McQuaid (LSHTM)
  • Saron Tekie
    • PhD Student (2024 - present)
    • Project: Genomic exploration of resistance evolution and spread in Streptococcus suis
    • Funding: LiDO fellowship
    • Co-supervisors: Gemma Murray (UCL)

Past postdocs

  • Eve Emes
    • Research Fellow (2021 - present), based at LSHTM
    • Completed PhD by prior publication in 2024
    • Project: SEFASI building on work with A4NH. Economic modelling to evaluate the impact of interventions to reduce antibiotic usage in food-producing animals.
    • Funding: Now SEFASI, but initially a collaboration between LSHTM and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) called ‘Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)’, funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research with Jo Lines (LSHTM) and Jeff Waage (London International Development Centre)
  • Nichola Naylor
    • Now at Public Health England, Economist / Honorary contract at LSHTM
    • Research Fellow (2018 - 2020), based at LSHTM
    • Project: Evaluating the potential impact of interventions to reduce antimicrobial use in livestock on human antimicrobial resistance and drug-resistant infections, with a focus on low and middle income settings
    • Funding: A collaboration between LSHTM and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) called ‘Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)’, funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
    • Collaborators: Jo Lines (LSHTM) and Jeff Waage (London International Development Centre)
  • Anneke de Vos
  • Andrea Weisse,
    • Now at University of Edinburgh
    • Research Associate (2018 - 2020), based at Imperial College London
    • Project: Mechanisms of spread and control of carbapenem resistant bacteria
    • Funding: CDC MIND-Healthcare Program
    • Collaborators: Alison Holmes and Eili Klein (CDDEP)

Past research assistants

  • Yalda Jafari
    • Research Assistant (2020-2021), based at LSHTM, now doing a PhD at Oxford.
    • Project: Nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK
    • Funding: NIHR UKRI
    • Collaborators: Julie Robotham and Stephanie Evans at PHE, Ben Cooper at Oxford University and Jon Read at Lancaster University.

Past PhD Students

  • Jacob Wildfire, now at Fleming Fund at Mott Macdonald
    • PhD Student (2020 - 2024)
    • Project: Barriers to the spread of antimicrobial resistance by horizontal gene transfer (focus on MRSA)
    • Funding: MRCLID fellowship
    • Co-supervisors (primary): Jodi Lindsay (St George’s, University of London)
  • Quentin Leclerc, now at Institut Pasteur.
    • PhD Student (2018 - 2022)
    • Project: Modelling to understand horizontal gene transfer: the example of transduction in Methillin Resistant S. aureus (MRSA)
    • Funding: MRC LID fellowship
    • Co-supervisors: Jodi Lindsay (St George’s, University of London)
  • Nichola Naylor
    • PhD Student (2015 - 2019), first at LSHTM (see above), then UKHSA.
    • Project: Economic evaluations of the burden of E. coli infections in England
    • Co-supervisors: Julie Robotham (PHE & Imperial College London) and Rifat Atun (Harvard School of Public Health)
  • Sophie Rhodes
    • PhD Student (2014 - 2017), continued her PhD work at LSHTM and now in Pharma.
    • Project: Using mathematical modelling to improve vaccine dosing for tuberculosis disease
    • Co-supervisors: Richard White (LSHTM) and Helen Fletcher (LSHTM)