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Miss Victoria Miari

BSc MSc PgDip ANSHCS

Principal Scientific Officer
& Clinical Scientist

Room
204/224/225

LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom

Tel.
020 7927 2170

Trained and HCPC registered Clinical Scientist in Microbiology, with a specialist interest in Sexually Transmitted Infections. Has been involved in various research studies including HSV, syphilis and gonorrhoea. A particular interest is antimicrobial resistance in STIs and specifically Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Received B.Sc. in Infectious Diseases from the University of East London and subsequently gained an M.Sc. in Clinical Microbiology by Queen Mary University of London and Pg.Dip. in Sexual Health by Glasgow Caledonian University. Was accepted in the competitive clinical scientist training programme with the British National Health Service and as part of this, sat the FRCPath Part 1 examination in Clinical Microbiology.  

Is currently a member of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine and hold the following roles: 1) Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs, Scientific & Clinical Practice Committee, 2) Lead for Scientific & Clinical Practice, Microbiology Committee. Is a member of the Standards for microbiological Investigation Bacteriology working group and member of the Bacteriology Interest group of the British ssociation for Sexual Health & HIV. 

Victoria is a shortlister and assessor for the NHS Scientist Training Programme and part of the London Training Consortium for STP Trainees.

Affiliations

Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases
Professional Support Services
Department of Infection Biology

Centres

Antimicrobial Resistance Centre

Teaching

MSc Programmes:

  • Medical Microbiology
  • Control of Infectious Diseases

MSc Modules:

  • Core Bacteriology & Virology
  • Clinical Bacteriology 1 & 2 (Deputy MO)
  • Clinical Virology (Deputy MO)
  • Mycology (Deputy DMO)
  • Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

She leads the Core Bacteriology and Core Virology module practical teaching for the MSc in Medical Microbiology and supports practical classes for clinical bacteriology, clinical virology and mycology modules. She also the deputy module organiser for the Clinical Virology, Clinical Bacteriology 1& 2 and DL Bacterial Infections modules.

She also delivers lectures in the Core Bacteriology and Clinical Bacteriology modules. She regularly supervises MSc project students.

  • 2013-2014: Multi-site Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection and antimicrobial resistance
  • 2014-2015: Optimisation of broth culture for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and gene transfer from commensal Neisserias
  • 2016-2017: Understanding the mechanism of resistance for the novel antimicrobial closthioamide in Neisseria gonorrhoeae
  • 2018-2019: Antimicrobial susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae strains to chlorhexidine by agar dilution and microbroth dilution method
  • 2018-2019: Carriage and characterisation of commensal Neisseria species in the human pharynx
  • 2019-2020: Literature Review of Viability PCR within Clinical Microbiology
  • 2019-2020: Systematic Review of gonococcal post-cephalospirin treatment failures 

Research

Research interests: Clinical diagnostics, Antimicrobial resistance, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Pharyngeal gonorrhoea, AMR surveillance, Health Services Research.

Victoria’s research focuses on antimicrobial resistant gonorrhoea and how pharyngeal infection facilitates development and transmission of AMR. Specifically she is interested in the role of commensal species in the genetic transfer of AMR genes, as well as the evaluation novel treatments for gonorrhoea such as topical antiseptics.

She is now evaluating the in vitro efficacy of chlorhexidine against N. gonorrhoeae with the view to implement chlorhexidine containing solutions as gonococcal treatment, thereby improving antimicrobial stewardship.

As part of her expertise in diagnostics, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and public health, she is also interested in multi-site gonorrhoea infection and how that impacts on the above areas. 

Research Area
Bacteria
Complex interventions
Diagnostics
Drug resistance
Health services research
Sexual health
Chemotherapy
Evidence use
Reproductive health
Discipline
Bacteriology
Microbiology
Molecular biology
Virology
Disease and Health Conditions
Herpesviruses
HIV/AIDS
Infectious disease
Syphilis
Hospital acquired infection
Human papillomavirus (HPV)
Sexually transmitted infection
Region
Euro area

Selected Publications

Ethnically diverse urban transmission networks of Neisseria gonorrhoeae without evidence of HIV serosorting.
Dave J; Paul J; Pasvol TJ; Williams A; Warburton F; Cole K; Miari VF; Stabler R; Eyre DW
2019
Sexually transmitted infections
In Vitro Susceptibility to Closthioamide among Clinical and Reference Strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Miari VF; Solanki P; Hleba Y; Stabler RA; Heap JT
2017
Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
Is there a role for topical antiseptics in the treatment of gonorrhoea?
Miari VF; Ison CA
2016
Sexually transmitted infections
Accurate detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae ciprofloxacin susceptibility directly from genital and extragenital clinical samples: towards genotype-guided antimicrobial therapy.
Pond MJ; Hall CL; Miari VF; Cole M; Laing KG; Jagatia H; Harding-Esch E; Monahan IM; Planche T; Hinds J
2016
The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy
Is gonorrhea becoming untreatable?
Blomquist PB; Miari VF; Biddulph JP; Charalambous BM
2014
Future microbiology
Evaluation of non-extracted genital swabs for real-time HSV PCR.
Miari VF; Wall GR; Clark DA
2014
Journal of medical virology
Minimum inhibitory concentrations of extended spectrum cephalosporins: A systematic review and meta-analysis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae treatment failure
Miari VF; Mosoff JM; Chico RM
See more Publications