PD Helena Seth-Smith PhD

Helena works at the Institute for Medical Microbiology at the University of Zurich. Her main focus is in the diagnostic arena, using Next Generation Sequencing to investigate clinical pathogens. This involves many fantastic collaborations with groups near and far.

To develop the insights available through genome sequencing, her research focus is on obtaining complete genomes from clinical samples, without culture. She has a great deal of expertise in this area, from STI genomes to fish pathogens.

Helena was awarded her Privatdozent in February 2025

Current Role

Previous work

Helena's PhD at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, cloning an operon involved in bacterial degradation of explosives.

Arguably more devastating than explosives, she then moved into the world of pathogens, and to Pathogen Genomics at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge. Here she worked on a host of pathogens, from single genomes to comparative genomics, also beginning here with methods of genome enrichment from clinical samples.

Moving to Switzerland and the University of Zurich, with a Marie Curie Fellowship between the Functional Genomics Centre Zurich and the Institute of Veterinary Pathology, she dived into the genomics of fish pathogens. New species and a new genus of bacteria were described genomically with data obtained from preserved infected fish, without culture.

As pathogen genomics came into the clinics, Helena moved to the Department of Clinical Bacteriology and Mycology at University Hospital Basel. The move from research into clinical diagnostic work made her work feel more immediately relevant, and involved many exciting interactions with clinical colleagues and collaborators.

Team Members

From September 2025 we are happy to welcome two new team members!

Karina Büttner PhD

Mariantonietta Lettieri

Karina comes to the Enriching Microbiology group fresh from completing her PhD summa cum laude in Buenos Aires. With six months' experience on the target enrichment project she brings a strong relevant background as well as her fantastic training in laboratory work and bioinformatics, which she is always happy to pass on.

Nina starts her PhD with us after her Masters in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London. Her main project will be on target enrichment of atypical respiratory pathogens. We look forward to a lot of interaction and learning on both sides.

Former team members

Vera Bregy

Vera did a six month, 60% internship with us in 2023-4 and was instrumental in collecting data for publications and preparing work for ongoing experimental improvements.

Thank you Vera!

Noelia Rodríguez Carballo

Noelia is studying for a Masters at the ETH Zürich and is now doing her six month thesis with us after a previous three month Masters project. We are starting a new target enrichment project on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and also diving deep into specific aspects of genome analysis.

Mariantonietta did a four month, 60% internship with us in 2024-5 after her Masters in microbiology at the UZH. Her tasks included molecular biology and data analysis. We were pleased to be able to publish the JoVE paper with her and we wish her the best.

Thank you Mari!

Nina Liuta