Originally from New Zealand, Dr Ian Monk completed a PhD at University College Cork in Ireland under the supervision of Professor Colin Hill and Dr Cormac Gahan on the functional genomics of Listeria monocytogenes. As a postdoctoral researcher, he then spent four years at Trinity College Dublin with Professor Tim Foster where he developed methods for the genetic manipulation of Staphylococci. He joined Associate Professor Tim Stinear’s group in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in 2013, where he is currently using a range of genomic techniques to investigate the essential WalKR two-component system of Staphylococcus aureus. He is interested in the molecular analysis of Gram-positive pathogenesis and has developed techniques for the genetic manipulation of Gram-positive bacteria, especially Staphylococci and has been at the forefront of techniques to manipulate previously intractable bacteria.
