Professor Georgina Hold

Professor Georgina Hold is a Professor of Gut Microbiology at the St George and Sutherland Clinical School, UNSW Australia.

Research Interests:

Understanding the impact of gastrointestinal microbes on human health and disease. In particular understanding the interactions between resident microbes and their host and how changes in the microbiota impact on human health. Developing greater understanding in this area allows us to further appreciate the contribution that gut microbes play in diseases and potentially develop therapeutic strategies to maintain and restore health. My lab has an internationally renowned reputation for microbiome analysis. This has been achieved by a) developing robust protocols for collecting and processing the most clinically relevant samples, and b) ensuring the science is clinically driven. The main challenges in gut microbiome research relate to defining the metabolic capabilities of the gut microbiota, the effect of therapeutic regimens on the gut microbiota and ultimately identifying how to manipulate these factors to promote/maintain health. This requires multi-disciplinary research strategies harnessing clinicians, microbiologists, nutritionists, epidemiologists, bioinformaticians and also public health analysts. To achieve this we collaborate with groups all over the world to ensure we bring together the skills sets required to address multi-faceted research questions.

Broad Areas of Research:

Inflammatory bowel disease

Gastrointestinal malignancy including liver cancer

Host/Microbial interactions

Microbial therapeutics

Qualifications:
BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry/Toxicology (1995)
PhD (1999)
Fulbright Scholar (2014-2015)

Senior Fellow Higher Education Authority (SFHEA UK)

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:

Member of the British Society of Gastroenterology
Member of the Scottish Society of Gastroenterology

Member of the Scottish Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Society

Member of the Society of General Microbiology (UK)

Member of the Society for Applied Microbiology (UK)

Visiting Scholar: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA; term July 2014 - 2021.

Honorary Academic Appointment, Aberdeen University; 2017 - 2021

Honorary Academic Appointment, University College London; 2014 - 2020

Specific Research Keywords:
Inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, gut microbiota, host microbial interactions, Campylobacter, microbial therapeutics