Adrian Cazares

Dr Adrián Cazares

BSc MSc PhD

Adrian is a microbiologist and genomicist interested in the evolution of bacterial pathogens and their mobile genetic elements. He is an ESPOD Research Fellow at EMBL-EBI and the Sanger Institute and a Fellow at Wolfson College.

Adrian Cazares

Adrian received his PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Mexico, where he studied genomics of bacteriophages (viruses infecting bacteria). During his PhD studies, Adrian obtained two mobility grants to support his training in bioinformatics and microbial genomics in Canada with Professor Gabriel Moreno-Hagelsieb (Wilfrid Laurier University) and in the USA with Professor Rob Edwards (San Diego State University). He completed an MSc degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology at CINVESTAV and a BSc in Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), working on bacteriophages' molecular characterisation under the supervision of Professor Gabriel Guarneros.

Adrian was awarded two Mexican Fellowships (CONACyT and SECTEI) to conduct postdoctoral research with Professor Craig Winstanley at the Institute of Infection and Global Health of the University of Liverpool, where he researched bacteriophages and plasmids of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He then moved to the Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, in 2020 to take a joint appointment as a Research Fellow in the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Sanger Institute, through a prestigious ESPOD Fellowship. Adrian is part of the Zamin Iqbal and Nick Thomson groups, and his main project combines state-of-the-art experimental and computational approaches to investigate the evolution of plasmids and antibiotic resistance. Adrian is currently a Fellow having been elected as a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College in 2021.

Currently, Adrian is a member of the Microbiology Society, and the Science Society and Global Health Research Hub at Wolfson College. Adrian has long experience teaching, tutoring and co-supervising dissertations on microbiology and genomics.

Adrian is fascinated by how bacteria evolve, and the genomic mechanisms underlying this process. In particular, he is interested in how Mobile Genetic Elements (MGE) capable of "jumping" within and between genomes shape bacterial evolution. MGE such as bacteriophages, transposons, and plasmids play a critical role in the microbial world by facilitating gene transfer amongst bacteria and accelerating their adaptation to different environments, including infections. Since MGE are frequently involved in transferring virulence and antibiotic resistance genes, they are pivotal in pathogens' evolution.

Adrian's current research project uses experimental and computational approaches to uncover how plasmids have evolved to become vectors of antibiotic-resistance genes. His work combines state-of-the-art genomics, bioinformatics and synthetic biology methods to characterise how plasmids have changed over time to collect and transfer resistance genes efficiently. Disclosing such changes is key to improving genomic surveillance and identifying molecular mechanisms driving the spread of antibiotic resistance in nature and the clinic. As plasmids and bacteriophages are vastly diverse, much of Adrian's research involves discovering novel MGE in various clinical and natural environments and new ways in which MGE impact bacterial genomes.

Adrian's research is highly collaborative, and he maintains links with several research groups interested in exploring the dynamics of bacterial and MGE genomes and the mechanisms by which pathogens evolve.

What's on

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Graduation Ceremony

27/04/2024 at 09.00

Graduation ceremonies are the culmination of students’ hard work and commitment, and a moment to celebrate the completion of their Cambridge degree.

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Art Exhibition: Ceramics in the Bernard Leach Tradition

28/04/2024 at 10.00

A display of works from the Bradshaw-Bubier studio pottery collection.

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The Difficult Joy of Death Activism

30/04/2024 at 17.30

How we can develop ‘death activism’ – a variety of tactics and posthuman practices which celebrate death, its inevitability, its forms, from the slow to times of crisis, and how can trauma and mourning emerge as their own forms of expression, or even activism?

Photograph of Sandi Toksvig, wearing a yellow shirt and leaning against a stone entryway.

Lee Lecture: How to change the world. A quick guide.

01/05/2024 at 18.00

We are delighted to welcome Sandi Toksvig OBE as our speaker for Wolfson's prestigious Lee Lecture this year.

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Wolfson Research Event 2024

02/05/2024 at 09.00

Join us for the 2024 Wolfson Research Event: an interdisciplinary academic conference organised by students to showcase the diversity of the research carried out by Wolfson students.

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