New Miriam Burnett Chair in Urological Sciences - Dr. Jeremy Burton

Dr. Jeremy Burton has always been passionate about the field of 
human microbial ecology and probiotics. He started in this area as a Masterate and PhD student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. His PhD thesis was also in part undertaken at the Nestle Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Lawson Health Research Institute and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario in the early 2000's he was focused upon investigating the urogenital microbiota with then-emerging non-culture-based techniques. These studies were the first to show that difficult-to-culture organisms, were in fact the frequent inhabitants of woman but rarely detected by bacteriological culture-based methods.

He returned to New Zealand to work for a publically listed biotechnology-company, where he had various roles, including as Senior Scientist and Business Development Manager. He was heavily involved in the commercialization of intellectual property in the area of novel antimicrobial molecules and probiotic bacteria.

He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and holds several patents. He has been recognized with various awards for research and other activities during his career. In 2007 he was named a fellow of St. Margaret's College, one of New Zealand's most prestigious residential colleges in recognition of his assistance to its residents. In 2011 he returned to the Probiotics Research and Development group at Lawson as its Deputy Director to follow his passion of translational research in probiotics.