Meet 2025 Infection Science Awardee: Dr Alyssa Hudson

Posted on April 7, 2025   by Microbiology Society

The Microbiology Society Infection Science Award aims to support the exchange of ideas and the career development of promising early-career and trainee researchers, helping to translate microbiological research to the clinic. The scheme facilitates selected presenters from the Federation of Infection Society (FIS) conference to present their work at Annual Conference.

In this blog, meet one of this year’s awardees, Dr Alyssa Hudson, University of Exeter & Royal Devon University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK, who presented in the Infection Forum session at Annual Conference 2025 last week.

What Are Your Current Research Interests?

My current research interest is in fungal diagnostics. During my clinical research fellow post at the University of Exeter Centre for Medical Mycology, my research focused on the use of novel monoclonal antibodies to Mucorales fungi (a diverse group of environmental moulds) in diagnosing mucormycosis (an aggressive invasive fungal infection caused by Mucorales moulds). I am now back in clinical practice as a medical microbiology registrar and am focusing on improving the use of existing fungal diagnostics at local laboratory levels. 

What is the theme of your talk?

My talk is titled 'The spatio-temporal localisation of a pan-Mucorales-specific antigen: a promising immunohistochemistry target and potential biomarker for mucormycosis.' Mucormycosis is a devastating invasive fungal infection caused by Mucorales moulds, with a mortality rate of over 50%.  Early diagnosis is key to improving prognosis but currently relies on insensitive culture and non-specific histopathology. There are no antigen biomarkers in clinical use to detect this disease. My talk outlines our research with a novel monoclonal antibody (mAb) against Mucorales moulds and describes the distribution and dynamics of the fungal antigen recognised by this mAb. These findings give valuable insight into how this antigen could be used as a biomarker for mucormycosis. In my talk I will also describe our work using a mouse lung infection model, which demonstrates how this mAb could be used as a specific immunohistochemistry stain for mucormycosis.

How would you explain your research to a GCSE student?

We have all seen mould growing on old food or rotting waste in a compost heap. Moulds are a type of fungi, and they are found all around us in the environment. Moulds do some really important jobs—they decompose organic waste; some are used in food production (mouldy blue cheese!) and others have given us life-saving drugs (the antibiotic penicillin came from a mould!). But did you know that these moulds can cause deadly infections in people whose immune systems don't work properly, such as people with blood cancer or severe diabetes? My research looks at a group of environmental moulds called Mucorales that can cause a deadly infection called mucormycosis. Over half of people who get this infection will sadly die. We want to fight this infection by finding ways to detect it sooner when treatment is most effective. My research is focusing on a special type of antibody (called a monoclonal antibody) that only binds to Mucorales moulds. Using this antibody in a laboratory test could help us detect this infection more easily and save lives. 

If you could do any other job, what would it be?

I love my job as an infection doctor in medical microbiology. It is hugely satisfying to diagnose infections in the laboratory, see patients with complex infections, and give advice and support to other medical teams. I don't think I would want to do another job! However, if I could do anything as a medical microbiologist, I would like to spend more time working abroad in countries that see different infections from those we see in the UK. So far in my medical career, I have worked in France, Portugal, Timor-Leste, and Panama...next stop India for a clinical observership. And after that, who knows!

Why is it important for the infection science community to engage with the Microbiology Society?

The Microbiology Society brings together scientists and clinicians from all areas of microbiology—human health, veterinary, agriculture, food production, environment, and climate change, to name a few. Microbes are integral to our life on Earth but also threaten our existence. By engaging with the Microbiology Society, members of the infection science community can share their work in these different areas, which can only serve to strengthen our understanding of microbes as both friends and foes in the future.