Biography
Fabrice Graf is a Lecturer in Antimicrobial Resistance at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) with extensive experience across the fields of molecular biology, microbiology, bacterial and parasitic antimicrobial resistance. Prior to joining LSTM, he obtained a BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Basel and completed an MSc in Infection Biology and Epidemiology and a PhD at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Fabrice investigated molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in human pathogenic trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness. He then completed a postdoc at the Centre for Resistance Research at the University of Gothenburg, investigating how genes on the bacterial chromosome influence the spread of multi-drug resistance plasmids in E. coli, followed by a second postdoc at the University of Basel, studying the mechanism of action of antivirals and the innate immune evasion strategy of human BK polyomaviruses. He joined LSTM as a Senior Research Associate in 2021 and was promoted to Lecturer (Career Track) in 2024.
Research interests
The main research focus for Fabrice’s group is antimicrobial resistance, primarily in gram-negative bacteria, and in particular extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing and carbapenem-resistant E. coli and K. pneumoniae.
They study and seek to understand complex molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance including re-emerging susceptibility, hard-to-predict antimicrobial resistance phenotypes based on genomic data, genotype-phenotype mismatches and collateral sensitivity, and how to translate this knowledge into clinical practice.
They aim to improve surveillance – a key objective of the World Health Organisation Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance. Understanding transmission of antimicrobial resistance -bacteria – where and how these bacteria are acquired by patients – is crucial to informing intervention studies aiming at interrupting transmission and thereby reducing infections. In addition, fewer infections will concurrently reduce the use of antibiotics and decrease the selection pressure on bacteria to evolve resistance.
As part of the TRacking AMR across Care Settings Liverpool study the group is investigating the transmission dynamics of extended spectrum beta-lactamase and CR E. coli and K. pneumoniae in hospitals and care homes in Liverpool. This knowledge will allow them to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of pilot heath systems intervention aiming to reduce antimicrobial resistance acquisition in care settings.
In their Defining E. coli Diversity in Complex Samples: Methods for Surveillance & Transmission project they are optimising laboratory and bioinformatics methods for describing and quantifying E. coli diversity based on the identification of epidemiologically informative single nucleotide variants to support One Health genomic antimicrobial resistance surveillance and to inform transmission modelling.
Teaching
Fabrice’s teaching portfolio includes lectures and laboratory practical’s in microbiology, the basic biology of microbial pathogens (bacteria and viruses), antimicrobial resistance and genomic surveillance as part of the MSc Tropical Disease Biology, MSc One Health in Tropical Disease and MRes in Tropical Health and Infection Disease Research.
He offers MSc, MRes and PhD supervision and lab placements with past topics including, how laboratory handling of complex samples influences statistical modelling of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli transmission, identifying robust collateral sensitivity phenotypes exploitable in a clinical context to minimise the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, and chloramphenicol resistance determinants in clinical isolates of E. coli.
Selected research publications
An evaluation of screening methods for the detection of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in environmental samples from healthcare settings – Journal: Journal of Applied Microbiology – Published: 3rd December 2025
Health system drivers of antimicrobial resistance: a qualitative exploration of implications for infection prevention and control in hospitals and long-term care facilities in Merseyside – Journal: Journal of Hospital Infection – Published: 21st October 2025
A high-resolution genomic and phenotypic analysis of resistance evolution of an Escherichia coli strain from a critically unwell patient treated with piperacillin/tazobactam – Journal: Journal of Medical Microbiology – Published: 19th May 2025
Optimized methods for the targeted surveillance of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli in human stool – Journal: Microbiology spectrum – Published: 1st January 2025
Molecular mechanisms of re-emerging chloramphenicol susceptibility in extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales – Journal: Nature Communications – Published: 18th October 2024
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