Matthew Gilmour

Dr Matthew Gilmour leads the ‘Listeria and other Invasive Pathogens’ research group and directs the Food Safety Research Network at the Quadram Institute in Norwich, England. Matthew is also co-lead of Quadram’s ‘Microbes and Food Safety’ strategic programme which has a focus on translating the Institute’s key microbiology findings and genomic technologies with partners in food industry and government.

Matthew was previously based in Canada where his group was a pioneer in using bacterial genomics to study outbreaks, including the large Canadian listeriosis outbreak in 2008 and then the Haitian cholera outbreak of 2010. With this experience in public health, from 2015 to 2020 Matthew was the Scientific Director of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory. At the NML, Matthew had significant leadership roles for pandemic preparedness and response, as he was also co-chair of the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network and the Global Health Security Action Group Laboratory Network.

Matthew has also clinical laboratory expertise, as he previously served as a Clinical Microbiologist at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, where he was the laboratory lead for Infection Prevention & Control, and he remains interested in the evolution and transmissibility of antibiotic resistant organisms.

As a culmination of these experiences, Matthew is also now Director of the Food Safety Research Network, based at the Quadram Institute. This network has the goal of brokering collaborative research projects between food businesses and academic research groups that will make UK foods safer from microbial risks.