Professor Ian Goodhead
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
Current positions
Professor of Microbial Genomics, Associate Dean – Research and Innovation
Biography
After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Keele in 2001, Ian moved to Cambridge, where he worked at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute for eight years. Initially sequencing and finishing bacterial and parasite genomes important in human and veterinary health using Sanger technology, Ian implemented new sequencing technologies, such as 454 (GS20/FLX) and subsequently Solexa (now Illumina), including undertaking some of the early proof-of-concept experiments.
Ian left Cambridge in 2007 to undertake a PhD at the University of Liverpool in the molecular genetics and host/parasite interaction of Trypanosoma brucei – a protozoan parasite responsible for “Sleeping Sickness” in sub-Saharan Africa. After some postdoctoral research into bacterial endosymbiosis in the same system, within the vector of the African Trypanosome – the Tsetse fly – Ian moved to Salford in 2015 to take up a lectureship position in infectious diseases and was promoted to Professor in 2022.
Ian has been the Associate Dean – Research and Innovation for the School of Environment and Life Sciences, and subsequently the School of Science, Engineering and Environment since 2018.
Areas of research
Microbial Genomics, DNA Sequencing, RNA-Seq, Neglected Tropical Diseases
Areas of supervision
Genomics, Molecular microbiology and parasitology, Bioinformatics
Teaching experience covers all years, from foundation year to Masters.
Current teaching:
2nd year: Food and Drink Microbiology, Microbial communities and interactions
3rd year: Human Genetics, Microbiomes
Masters: Genomics (module leader)
My career has focused on the adoption and development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and applications.
I facilitate NGS applications in a wide-range of subject areas in both the wet-lab and computational biology settings.
Currently funded areas of research include microbiology, marine biology, metagenomics and environmental DNA / metabarcoding studies on a range of NGS platforms.
Recent research has included using multi-omic strategies to better understand microbial pathogenesis, infection, host/pathogen interaction and bacterial genome evolution.
I maintain interests in Neglected Tropical Diseases, including infectious disease epidemiology and vector control, but particularly in the genome architecture and evolution of bacterial endosymbionts.
PhD University of Liverpool. Thesis title: Genomic approaches to understanding host resistance and parasite virulence in Trypanosoma parasites (2011)
BSc (Hons) Keele University. Biochemistry and Biology (2001)
PgCAP and HEA fellow. (2017)
I welcome applications from prospective self-funded or government funded students across any of my research areas.