Dr Aimee Murray is a Lecturer in Microbiology researching the evolution and ecology of antimicrobial resistance, particularly in the environment. Using interdisciplinary approaches spanning microbiology, ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment, Aimee’s research has real world impact on the protection of human health and the environment.
Through a longstanding collaboration with industrial partner AstraZeneca and contacts at Defra and the Environment Agency, Aimee’s research on minimal selective concentrations of antibiotics is of interest to policy makers and industry at the national and international level. She has presented her research to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics alongside University of Exeter colleagues with the aim to generate amendments to the Environment Bill. Her research was reviewed during the prioritisation process to include antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in the EU Commission’s Water Framework Directive Watch List. She has also been consulted by the United Nations Environment Programme as an expert on environmental risk assessment of antimicrobial resistance. Authored and co-authored papers have been cited by the UK Government, Environment Agency, Joint Programming Initiative on AMR, Food and Agricultural Organisation, World Health Organisation, and the United Nations Environment Programme.
Aimee is primary supervisor for four PhD students (April Hayes, Laura Murray, Leah Clarke and Emily Stevenson) working on co-selection for antimicrobial resistance by non-antibiotic drugs and non-antimicrobial compounds, environmental surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and the role of microplastics in antimicrobial resistance evolution and dissemination.
Aimee was awarded the Eliahou Dangoor Scholarship and Leonard Broadbent Prize at the University of Bath, where she graduated with 1st Class Honours in 2013. Aimee joined the European Centre for Environment in Human Health (ECEHH) in 2013 to undertake her BBSRC/ AstraZeneca CASE funded PhD studies. Following the award of her PhD, Aimee secured a NERC Industrial Innovation Research Fellowship to develop the first assay which can generate data on selection for antimicrobial resistance and be used for environmental risk assessment (2018 – 2021). She commenced her lectureship at the University of Exeter summer 2021.