Ashleigh MacDonald (she/her)

Ashleigh is a second-year DPhil student on the Interdisciplinary Bioscience Doctoral Training Centre programme. As well as the university, her project also has the James Hutton Institute as an academic partner, so her location does change between institutes according to project requirements. Ashleigh graduated with BSc (Hons) Food Bioscience from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2017, after which she spent a year working in the food industry as a quality assurance technician. Ashleigh’s research project is focussed on identifying the specific antimicrobial activity of in-pack ozone treatment, which was developed by Anacail Ltd (now in administration) as an intervention treatment for the food industry. The treatment involves the generation of ozone gas within a sealed food pack, which subsequently kills a wide range of micro-organisms present on the surface of produce, by subjecting them to oxidative stress. Some bacteria may however survive the treatment if they are located in sites which are inaccessible to ozone or if they are able to enter into a reduced state of viability. Ashleigh’s project aims to identify the impact of O3treatment on the bacterial physiology of selected food-borne and plant pathogens. This will determine if some bacteria are more tolerant to the treatment than others, if bacterial location in produce affects bacterial sensitivity to the treatment and if the treatment is able to induce reduced states of bacterial viability. Ashleigh will also determine the impact of in-pack ozone treatment on the microbial community of fresh produce, as a whole. Outside of the lab Ashleigh enjoys long walks, occasional running and attending fitness classes.