Microorganisms are found throughout the world, thriving in diverse ecosystems ranging from secluded Antarctic lakes to desert crust, from deep sea vents to high-altitude alpine rocks. Their preferences or adaptations for different environmental habitats are determined by their genetics.

Pseudomonas are a genus of bacteria found in an array of settings, including food, plants, soil, and water. They play pivotal roles in lots of significant biological processes, including food spoilage, plant diseases, plant growth promotion, and opportunistic infections in humans.

Because of the way their lifestyles overlap with ours, Pseudomonas bacteria are a subject of intense study, including within the Norwich Research Park (NRP). The research park is a hub for microbiology and one of the largest single -site concentrations of research in food, genomics and health in Europe.

Twelve research groups on the Norwich Research Park work on Pseudomonas-related projects, with different institutes focusing on specific aspects of this bacteria. The John Innes Centre has groups working on identifying novel antibiotics and improving plant growth using Pseudomonas, whilst the Quadram Institute has groups exploring pathogenicity, antimicrobial resistance, phage treatment, food spoilage and foodborne pathogen control, with Pseudomonas being a central component in these studies.

Here at the Quadram Institute, we both work on Pseudomonas. Eleftheria’s research explores the role of the bacteria in controlling foodborne pathogen spread through fresh produce, while Samuel’s work looks at Pseudomonas’s contribution to disease and antimicrobial resistance on food.

We organised a workshop in October 2023 to bring together researchers from across the park and to foster collaboration, knowledge exchange, and push the boundaries of Pseudomonas research.

The workshop was attended by more than 30 researchers from the bioscience institutes on the research park including the Quadram Institute, John Innes Centre, The Sainsbury Laboratory, and the University of East Anglia.

Researchers gave brief presentations on their scientific interests related to Pseudomonas. These presentations encouraged in-depth discussions about shared challenges and potential solutions. We were pleased to see that the workshop created a conducive environment for collaborative efforts, with researchers sharing their experiences.

It was exciting to see innovative ideas surface to enhance future research on Pseudomonas. These ideas included establishing a comprehensive database to catalogue Pseudomonas strains that research groups are willing to collaborate on.

Another idea was to develop better screening models for identifying important compounds produced by Pseudomonas. There was a suggestion for a cross-institute analysis of Pseudomonas strains obtained from various environments too.

We hope that these initiatives can help to advance our understanding of this bacterium and its potential applications.

The Pseudomonas workshop not only showcased the breadth of Pseudomonas-related research conducted in Norwich but also encouraged cross-institutional collaborations. Through collaboration we can strengthen the collective effort to advance our understanding of this significant bacterial genus.

We hope that this workshop is the start of many more future scientific meetings and collaborative endeavours into studying Pseudomonas.