Jay Laver

Dr Jay Laver is a Principal Research Fellow in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Southampton's Faculty of Medicine, collaborating with the NIHR Clinical Research Facility and Southampton NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. His work focuses on controlled human infection models to study bacterial colonization and immune interactions, particularly using genetically modified Neisseria lactamica for vaccine antigen delivery and pathogen displacement.

Education: PhD in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology from the University of Sheffield (2008), with prior industry experience at AstraZeneca. Professional history includes research at Case Western Reserve University (USA) before joining Southampton in 2012, where he pioneered genetic transformation methods for Neisseria lactamica (NTT platform).

Research interests include:

• Drugs in bugs: Engineering Neisseria lactamica as a delivery platform for therapeutic molecules, demonstrating systemic immune responses in clinical trials.
• Bugs as drugs: Leveraging Neisseria lactamica's ability to displace meningococci, with field trials in Mali via collaborations with University College London's Mucosal Pathogens Research Unit.

Key projects include Medical Research Council-funded studies on maternal-infant transmission and NIHR Global Health Unit collaborations. His patented NTT technology enables streamlined cloning systems for recombinant antigen presentation in commensal bacteria.

Grants: Active Medical Research Council and industry-funded projects (e.g., ILiAD Biotechnologies). Supervises PhD students Ryan Elliott and Anastasia Theodosiou. Collaborates with global institutions to advance bacterial medicine and infection control strategies.

Labs/Teams: Part of Prof. Robert Read's Experimental Human Challenge Group, contributing to controlled human infection methodologies and vaccine development pipelines.