Dr Leanne Taylor-Smith MSci, PhD, SFHEA

Dr Leanne Taylor-Smith

School of Biosciences
Associate Professor in Eukaryotic Microbiology
Head of Education School of Biosciences

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 5572
Email
l.m.taylorsmith@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
Address
W113, School of Biosciences
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Taylor-Smith is Head of Education for the School of Biosciences. She teaches on Eukaryotic microbiology, host-pathogen interactions and immunology. Her previous research has been on the host-pathogen interaction between human macrophages and the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans.

Qualifications

MSci (ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø) 2010

PhD (ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø) 2014

PGCHE (ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø) 2020

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) 2023

Biography

Leanne did her undergraduate studies here at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. As a third year undergraduate student she had the opportunity to work in Professor Charles Penn's laboratory on the gastrointestinal pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. The aim of this project was to investigate the function of the flagella biosynthesis gene, flhF. Leanne then did an MSci project on the pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS).

Leanne’s PhD focused on the intracellular behaviours of two microbial pathogens: Streptococcus agalactiae and the Eukaryotic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Whilst conducting her PhD research in Professor Robin May’s group, she became familiar with both bacterial and fungal infections of phagocytes. She enjoyed combining host-pathogen interaction studies with advanced live cell imaging. This technique has enabled her to investigate the temporal dynamics of pathogen-containing phagosomes.

Leanne’s PhD was done part time whilst a teaching assistant within the school of Biosciences. During this time Leanne developed and implemented an optional module for second year biological sciences undergraduates. These ‘Biotechnique Masterclasses' were taught by PhD students and Post-Doctoral researchers in research labs within the school of Biosciences. Her contributions to teaching were recognised with the Excellence in Teaching Award from the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø in July 2012.

From 2014-2018 Leanne undertook both post-graduate research and lecturing roles. The research remained focussed on Cryptococcus infection research but she gained experience of using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with collaborators at Oxford and dual macrophage infection with replication deficient HIV with collaborators in UCL.

Since 2018 Leanne has been a full time lecturer in the School of Biosciences.

Teaching

Teaching on various modules at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate level, covering topics such as:

  • Eukaryotic microbiology
  • Host-pathogen interactions (module organiser) 
  • Microbiology and infectious disease 
  • Molecular and Cellular Immunology 

Leanne was Biological Sciences programme lead 2018 -2021, and Deputy Director of Education (Admissions) for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences 2021-2023.

Research

Research ID

ORCID ID

Other activities

Other Qualifications

  • Advanced HE External Examiner course (2022)

Societies & Network memberships:

  • Advanced HE
  • Microbiology Society (MS)
  • Education and Outreach network of MS
  • Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS)
  • Society of Experimental Biology (SEB)
  • British Society of Medical Mycology (BSMM)
  • Biochemical Society
  • Irish Fungal Society (IFS)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Saidykhan, L, Correia, J, Romanyuk, A, Desanti, GE, Taylor-Smith, L, Makarova, M, Ballou, ER & May, RC 2022, '', PLoS Pathogens, vol. 18, no. 8, e1010321.

Seoane Denicola, P, Taylor-Smith, L, Stirling, D, Bell, LCK, Noursadeghi, M, Bailey, D & May, R 2020, '', PLoS pathogens, vol. 16, no. 2, e1008240.

Lim, J, Coates, CJ, Seoane, PI, Garelnabi, M, Taylor-Smith, LM, Monteith, P, Macleod, CL, Escaron, CJ, Brown, GD, Hall, RA & May, RC 2018, '', Journal of Immunology, vol. 200, no. 9, pp. 3539-3546.

Garelnabi, M, Bielska, E, May, R, Taylor-Smith, L, Hall, R & Stones, D 2018, '', PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 3, e0194615.

Dambuza, I, Drake, T, Chapuis, A, Zhou, X, Correia, J, Taylor-Smith, L, LeGrave, N, Rasmussen, T, Fisher, M, Bicanic, T, Harrison, T, Jaspars, M, May, R, Brown, G, Yuecel, R, MacCallum, D & Ballou, ER 2018, '', PLoS pathogens, vol. 14, no. 5, e1006978.

Perez Soto, N, Moule, L, Crisan, D, Insua Lopez, I, Taylor-Smith, L, Voelz, K, Fernandez-Trillo, F & Krachler, AM 2017, '', Chemical Science.

Taylor-Smith, LM & May, RC 2016, '', Current Opinion in Microbiology, vol. 34, pp. 67-74.

Smith, LM, Dixon, EF & May, RC 2015, '', Cellular Microbiology, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 702–713.

Voelz, K, Johnston, SA, Smith, LM, Hall, RA, Idnurm, A & May, RC 2014, '', Nature Communications, vol. 5, 5194.

Smith, LM & May, RC 2013, '', Biochemical Society Transactions, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 475-90.

Cumley, N, Smith, L, Anthony, M & May, R 2012, '', Infection and Immunity, vol. 80, no. 5, pp. 1650-1661.

Comment/debate

Saidykhan, L, Correia, J, Romanyuk, A, Peacock, AFA, Desanti, GE, Taylor-Smith, L, Makarova, M, Ballou, ER & May, RC 2022, '', PLoS Pathogens, vol. 18, no. 11, e1011001.