My first introduction to microbiology at Cardiff was via Dr John Moore when I was 16 or 17 and still at High school. I was fortunate in that I attended a small country school in Tregaron, West Wales, with a total of just 400 pupils. I was even more fortunate that one of my science teachers, Mr Robert Thomas, organised a school science club as part of the extra curricula activities of the school. Mr Thomas had organised several fund raising sponsored walks in aid of Velindre Hospital. In return, various staff members of Velindre Hospital had been invited to speak to the Tregaron Secondary School Science Club. We had several staff from Velindre visit us. Unfortunately I do not remember all of their names. Apart from John Moore, there was Helen Bass and also Jon Court who came to the school on a couple of occasions. Although Mr Thomas taught us Physics he had immense enthusiasm for Science in general.

 

During one of the visits of John Moore to Tregaron, the idea was raised to introduce some of the more senior members of the School Science Club to the principal of maintaining mammalian tissue cultures. It was a procedure which was fraught with difficulty for the budding microbiologists, none of us had ever encountered the practical aspects of aseptic technique and furthermore, all operations were carried out in the physics laboratory. Mammalian tissue cultures being among the more difficult types of cells to demonstrate the principles of aseptic technique was very much throwing us in the deep end.  For an incubator we used a water bath which led to  almost immediate contamination.

 

Despite this, the concept of growing mammalian cells in vitro fascinated me and whetted my appetite for more information. I think I had an additional interest as my mother had died of cancer and although she was never a patient at Velindre, her death when I was just 15 was at an impressionable age. I remember one sunny afternoon in the home of Mr Thomas discussing my future education with John Moore. My interests were certainly in human biology and disease, so John recommended that I study medicine at Cardiff As it happened I did rather poorly in my A levels and was unable to get into medical school. I was however, fortunate enough to be accepted to do Microbiology at Cardiff As far as I was concerned, this didn't really matter, because my understanding of microbiology at that time was that it was mainly about germs and diseases. Sure there were other microbes around that lived in the soil and other such places, but they really didn't do much that was particularly interesting as far as I was concerned. In retrospect, failing to get into medical school was the best thing that could have happened to me in terms of my education and later career.

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So I begun life as a student in 1979 in the Newport Road building which housed the Microbiology Department. I was soon to discover that there was much more to microbiology than disease. I believe this was one of the first concepts of microbiology that was introduced in the first undergraduate lecture in Microbiology. Over the three years that I was in Cardiff my knowledge of the ubiquity of microorganisms increased. I remember listening to Ted Hill's accounts of fungi growing in the hydrocarbons of aircraft fuel and his stories of microorganisms growing on the grim on the windows of the Cardiff city buses. Ted had a particular style of teaching which I admired.

 

There was one particular lecture I remember particularly well. I think Ted was trying to demonstrate that all is not always what it seems when looking down the microscope. Ted had a picture of a bare-breasted lady which he had concealed almost completely with a sheet of paper. All that was showing was small part of the young lady's anatomy through a hole in the paper. The rest of the picture was concealed from the class. Nobody was able to identify what was behind the rest of the sheet of paper until the sheet was removed. It was an exercise which certainly appealed to my interests and clearly demonstrated that in science we cannot be focused in our studies but should always consider the big picture which may take us beyond our chosen discipline of specialisation. I've no idea what the rest of the class thought of this analogy, but from the general level of titters (!) heard from the back of the room, it must have been met with a certain amount of approval.

 

I tried to be an active member of the Micro Soc, enjoying skittles evenings and the occasional pork pie eating competition in the Rose and Crown. That wonderful beer, SA featured heavily in my life. My prac partner for much of the Microbiology classes was Glyn Hobbs. Glyn and I seemed to make a good team. One particular lunchtime before a micro prac, Glyn and I had decided to have a game of pool in a pub at the end of Queen Street. I think the idea was to loosen-up our manual dexterity for aseptic technique later in the afternoon. Unfortunately I have never been very good at sport, and as I took my shot, I managed to slam the edge of the pool table with my thumb. A fragment of metal from the edge of the pool table embedded itself in my thumb nail. It was fairly painfully, so we decided to head back to Newport Road for the commencement of the afternoon prac class. The first aid officer at the time was Pat Davies who recommended that I immediately go the Cardiff Royal Infirmary. My thumb nail was removed under local anaesthetic and my opportunity to practice my aseptic technique that afternoon was abandoned.

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I was to revisit the principles of mammalian tissue culture as part of my third year honours project where I looked at the cytotoxic effects of some cobalt complexes on human xenografts maintained in immune suppressed mice. Together with Anna Peplinska and Tracy Cooper, the three of us carried out our Honours projects at Velindre Hospital. This involved car pooling for the journey from Newport Road to Whitchurch every day. It was good to experience laboratory life other than that encountered in the University.

 

I graduated in 1982 and it was with some regret that I was unable to secure a PhD studentships in an area of cell biology/medical microbiology. David Hughes drew to my attention that a PhD studentship was available in the Microbiology Department at the University of Birmingham. As it turned-out, the studentship was to work on plant pathology. Nevertheless I accepted the offer and begun my studies on Fusarium wilt of tomato. During my three years at Birmingham I made repeated trips back to Cardiff for Micro Soc events. Inspired by the Cardiff Micro Soc I established and then proceeded to run a Microbiology Society for the University of Birmingham. David Lloyd was among our first speakers in that inaugural year.

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My PhD led me down the road of plant biochemistry and fungal physiology. I developed an interest in phytoalexins and other secondary metabolites from plants with antimicrobial activity. Solanaceous plants such as Lycopersicon esculentum, contain a variety of glycoalkaloid compounds with antimicrobial activity. I used liposome vesicles to  study how glycoalkaloids complexed with fungal membrane  sterols, specifically with the 3 beta-hydroxyl group of the sterol nucleus. At this time, during the mid 1980s, there was a lot of interest in the sterol biosynthetic pathway as a target site for both fungicides and antimycotics.

After graduating from Birmingham, I secured a post-doctoral position with Ian Mercer in the Biochemistry department at Aberystwyth where I worked on the mode of action of fungicides and sterol biosynthesis in both plants and fungi. I was able to maintain my links with microbiology at Cardiff through the Gregynog meetings and the occasional Micro Soc event, although by this point the number of people that I knew in Cardiff was starting to decrease. I did have some contact with Ted Hill during this time, as he was invited to speak to the Aberystwyth Student Biochemical Society.

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My post-doc at Aberystwyth proved to be a passport for some later international employment. At the end of my three year contract at Aberystwyth, I moved to switzerland where I worked in the R & D division of a small agrochemical company, Dr R Maag Ltd (now part of Norvatis). Life in central Europe broadened my horizons. The company I worked for, paid for me to attend an intensive German course. Working in an industry has many advantages, salaries are generally higher and the research definitely has a very applied nature. I also felt that I was very much part of a team working towards a common goal. In terms of publication of research findings, it is true that any company will want to check that the publication does not jeopardise its security, but I never found this to be a hindrance. After two years with Dr R Maag Ltd., I decided it was time to explore more of the world and moved to Australia in January 1991 to take-up a position with the New South Wales State Department of Agriculture at Rydalmere in Sydney.

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With NSW Agriculture I was employed to investigate fungicide resistance, particularly in Botrytis cinerea on grapevines. Botrytis cinerea causes a destructive grey mould of grape berries and other crops but given the right conditions at the end of the growing season can lead to a noble rot which is used in the Sauterne style of wine. Botrytis is notoriously difficult to control, inhibitors of the sterol biosynthetic pathway are generally ineffective.  Systemic  fungicides for Botrytis  are prone  to  resistance, particularly as the pathogen has a high degree of adaptability. Effective control is achieved as part of an Integrated Pest & Disease Management Programme (IPDM) involving both chemical and cultural control. As part of an IPDM system, and with funding from the Cooperative Research Centre for Viticulture, I have spent the last five years investigating the phytoalexin response of grapevines and ways in which such a response can be managed with conventional fungicide control.

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The grape industry is probably one of the few expanding horticulture industries in Australia and after working on Botrytis and grapevines for almost five years, I suddenly found myself labelled as a viticulturist. Since September 1995 I have been employed as a Lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga in the School of Wine and Food Sciences. Aside from my teaching, I currently have a number of research projects in the areas of vine physiology and pathology and wine microbiology. My work on fungicides and natural antimicrobial compounds continues, but I have expanded my research interest to include aspects of nematology and the glucosidase activity of wine yeasts and bacteria.

 

Multi-skilling appears to be the order of the day, and joy of joys, I am at last teaching some microbiology. I primarily teach biochemistry, and viticulture but also teach our third year wine microbiology subject. Additionally I teach the mycology component of our first year general microbiology subject. Virtually all of my students are enrolled in degrees in the wine and food sciences, and so their principal interests are not in the area of pure microbiology. However, I relate to my students the ubiquity of microorganisms in the way that I was inspired by the staff of the Cardiff Microbiology department when I was an undergraduate, using tales learnt from those Cardiff-days of Ted Hill and others of the fascinating and diverse lifestyles of microorganisms.

 

I have tried to maintain contact with colleagues from Cardiff as I have moved around. (There are several of us that live "down-under"). Even from Switzerland I was still able to attend the occasional COMA reunion, although the distance from Australia has made such reunions rare for me. Although I only lived in Cardiff for three brief, yet exciting years, whenever I do return, I always have a feeling of "belonging". I'd have to think long and hard about leaving Australia, it is a beautiful place to live with a nice climate, (shame about the awful beer, but at least the wine is good), but if ever I do return to the UK, then Cardiff is certainly a city that I would be prepared to call my home again.