At present my research activities revolve around a number of aspects of microbial ecology. I am primarily interested in understanding population shifts in our commensal microbiota which are associated with the inception and progression of polymicrobial diseases. A number of molecular techniques including metagenomics are now available which allow the population profile of a given microbial population to be ascertained in a unbiased and cultured independent manner. These techniques have revolutionised our understanding of the human microbiome and it is thought that perhaps 50,000 different species make up th ehuman microbiome.