Microbiologist
Oleksii Omelchenko is a Research Scientist at QIB Extra, specialising in metagenomic profiling of food environments for industrial partners. He leads the implementation of next-generation sequencing approaches within QIB Extra, supporting innovation and data-driven insights across the food and biotechnology sectors.
Oleksii holds a PhD in Microbiology from the Quadram Institute, where he conducted his research in the groups of Dr Matthew Gilmour and Professor Mark Webber. His doctoral work focused on understanding how Listeria monocytogenes adapts to the common stresses found in food-factory environments, enabling the formation of persistent, highly resilient reservoirs.
Prior to his PhD, Oleksii completed an MRes at Imperial College London. His research there examined the effects of broad-spectrum antibiotics on metabolite production by the gut microbiota, as well as toxin-inner tube interactions in the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, working under Dr Julie McDonald and Professor Alain Filloux.
Oleksii’s first research experience began at the University of Barcelona, where he worked in the field of food safety, investigating how transcription elongation factors influence biofilm formation in Salmonella.