Dr Melinda Ashcroft is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based in the Department of Infectious Diseases in the Central Clinical School. Melinda uses comparative genomics and genomic epidemiology to investigate the evolution, virulence and pathogenesis, and antimicrobial resistance of bacterial infectious diseases such as Escherichia coli, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Klebsiella spp.

Melinda's current research projects involve creating a database for the identification and characterisation of surface capsule and lipopolysaccharide loci in the Klebsiella oxytoca Species Complex and defining the sero-epidemiology of Klebsiella spp. and lineages associated with neonatal bloodstream infections.

Melinda's prior research includes 2 years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia where she led research on the genomic epidemiology of antimicrobial resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae lineages. Here, she won 2 conference presentation awards, won an internal, University of Melbourne Early Career Researchers grant of ~AUD$32,000 and co-supervised an Honour's student who was awarded First-Class Honours. Prior to this, Melinda completed her Masters of Biotechnology and PhD at The University of Queensland, Australia. During her PhD, she studied the evolution and function of mobile genetic elements, DNA methylation and antimicrobial resistance in extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli. Here Melinda won 2 conference presentation awards including the prestigious Australian Society for Microbiology Nancy Millis Student Travel Award QLD, 2017.