Elitsa is a PhD student focusing on understanding the public health risks from exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in rivers and other freshwater environments.

Her research builds upon previous work on coastal waters which found that recreational activities, such as bathing, are associated with an increased risk of exposure to and colonisation by ARB.

Elitsa’s lead supervisor is Dr Anne Leonard, with Prof William Gaze, Prof Ruth Garside, Dr Andrew Singer, and Dr Nicola Elviss as additional supervisors.

Elitsa’s current project is funded by NERC GW4+ DTP and is based at the University of Exeter, with additional project partners including the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the UK Health Security Agency, with further support from the Environmental Agency.

Before joining Dr Anne Leonard’s team, Elitsa completed a two-year MSc by Research in Biological Sciences, supervised by Prof Ben Raymond. For her dissertation project, she studied the evolutionary ecology of antibiotic resistance, using an insect model system. She examined the overall fitness consequences of resistance acquisition, as well as the effects of dosing, social interactions, and frequency dependence on the benefits of beta-lactam resistance, in the opportunistic pathogen Enterobacter cloacae in its natural environment – the gut of the Diamondback moth larvae (Plutella xylostella).