Dr April Hayes is a microbiologist, with broad interests in microbial ecology and evolution particularly in regards to antimicrobial resistance.

April completed her PhD at the ECEHH, in the laboratories at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus, where she was investigating the effects of non-antibiotic drugs on bacterial communities. She was interested in how these pharmaceuticals may affect antimicrobial resistance. She was supervised by Dr Aimee Murray, Professor Will Gaze, and Dr Lihong Zhang from the ECEHH, alongside supervisors Professor Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern and Professor Ed Feil from the University of Bath. April’s project was co-funded by Astra-Zeneca, and was supervised by Professor Jason Snape.

Currently, she is working as a postdoctoral research fellow with Dr Aimee Murray to investigate antibiotic resistance evolution in mixed bacterial communities. This project aims to inform wider policy and environmental protection by identifying the concentrations at which antimicrobial resistance occurs at. The project also aims to identify further factors that alter how resistance evolves in bacterial communities.