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.

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.