The Lister Institute visit's the University of Manchester to present Fiona with her Lister Prize

On 12 November, I gave a presentation entitled “Pangenomes in microbiomes: accessory gene driven competition in the cystic fibrosis lung microbiota” to my colleagues at the University of Manchester and two visiting members of The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. This seminar formed a really unique (and I argue, important) requirement of receiving a Lister Research Prize: that your host institution should throw you a mini celebration of the award.

I saw this seminar as an opportunity to talk about something that often gets swept under the rug: the journey behind and leading up to the success. I didn’t want to talk about all the science that went “right” but instead focus on how myself and colleagues developed some of the ideas that ended up in my Lister application from negative results and data. I was also very open about other grant and Fellowship applications that I haven’t been successful with, including my first unsuccessful application to the Lister Institute in 2021.

It was such a pleasure to have a chance to get to know Director Dr Sally Burtles and Professor Sir John Iredale better. Prof. Iredale presented a short history on the Institute at the end of the seminar before presenting me with the Prize.

To learn more about the Lister Institute - and to apply yourself - please visit the Lister Institute home page. To read more and see more pictures about the day, please see the Institute’s write up.