Professor Till Bachmann
My laboratory is interested in diagnostics innovation in the context of targeted and effective antibiotic therapy
Professor Till T. Bachmann
Deputy Head of Infection Medicine & Personal Chair of Molecular Diagnostics and Infection

- Infection Medicine
- Deanery of Biomedical Sciences
- Edinburgh Medical School
Contact details
- Work: +44 (0) 131 242 9438
- PA (Marissa Millar): +44 (0)131 242 9437
- Email: till.bachmann@ed.ac.uk
-
Address
- Street
Chancellor's Building
49 Little France Crescent
Edinburgh BioQaurter- City
- Edinburgh
- Post Code
- EH16 6WA
Personal Profile
Professor Till Bachmann is Deputy Head of the nfection Medicine, Reader in Personalised Medicine in Infectious Diseases, and Programme Director of the Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases MSc at The University of Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh Director of the Zhejiang University -University of Edinburgh Institute Dual PhD programme. Till has a PhD in biosensor research from the University of Stuttgart and The University of Tokyo, as well as a German Habilitation in Analytical Biotechnology. He is an expert in the Point-of-Care detection of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, conducting research at the interface of biomarkers and novel detection modalities. Till gained commercial experience as a founding CEO of Namaxx Genomic GmbH (2001-6) and as Scientific Programme Director for MHC Scotland Ltd (2013-15). He also fulfils a variety of industrial and institutional advisory roles worldwide. For AMR Dx Global he brings in a range of relevant activities and memberships, such as the UK Five Year National AMR Strategy: AMR Diagnostic Collaborative, UK Longitude Prize Panel Scottish Universities; Life Science Alliance AMR Steering Group, Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Executive Committee, AMR Theme, Leader ‘Rapid diagnostics’ for EID, founder Edinburgh AMR Forum, Edinburgh Global Health Academy and Global Security Steering Groups. Till was also judge for the EU Horizon Prize on Better Use of Antibiotics (2016) and is member of the Devices and Diagnostics Advisory Board for BIRAC/Indian Government, the founder of AMR DxC, the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostics Challenge competition as well as the coordinator of the £4m UK-India programme DOSA - ‘Diagnostics for One Health and User Driven Solutions for AMR’ bringing together nine leading academic institutions, five from India and four from the UK.
Teaching
- Zhejiang University – University of Edinburgh Dual PhD in Integrative Biomedical Sciences (UoE Programme Director)
- Online MSc Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (Programme Director, Course organiser)
- ‘Diagnostics and Therapeutics for Infectious Diseases’ Elective in Infectious Disease Honours (Deputy Course Organiser, Lectures)
- ‘Diagnostic Biochips’ in MSc Drug Discovery and Translational Biology (Lectures)
Research
Our research focusses on rapid diagnostics at point of care to enable personalised approaches to medicine. This involves research on novel biosensors, molecular diagnostics, next generation sequencing and biomarkers as well as factors affecting the development and implementation of novel diagnostics. Our main target is the optimisation of antimicrobial therapy to reduce antimicrobial resistance and optimise patient outcome I a wide range of diseases and healthcare settings.
Addional infomation on AMR: AMR Cross-Council Initiative
Research Themes
Current Funding Sources
- UK Research and Innovation
- Joint Programming Imitative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR)
- Rosetrees Trust
- Chief Scientist Office
Lab Members
- Dr Holger Schulze (Senior Research Fellow)
- Dr Appan Roy Choudhury (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
- Ori Solomon (Research Technician)
- Adriana Libori Sanchez (Research Technician)
- Dr Medhat Kharttar (Teaching Fellow)
- Marissa Millar (Administrative Co-ordinator)
- Sarah Stedman (PhD Student)
- Stefan Rooke (PhD Student)
Collaborations
We collaborate globally with excellent colleagues in academia, healthcare, industry and policy.
Recent Publications
van Belkum A, Bachmann TT, Luedke G, Lisby G, Kahlmeter G, Mohess A, Becker K, Hays JP, Woodford N, Mitsakakis K, Moran-Gilad J, Vila J, Peter H, Rex J, Dunne WM on behalf of the JPIAMR AMR-RDT Working Group, Developmental roadmap for antimicrobial susceptibility testing systems, Nature Reviews Microbiology, accepted
Brennecke J, Kraut S, Zwadlo K, Gandi SK, Pritchard D, Templeton K, Bachmann TT, High yield extraction of E. coli RNA from human whole blood, J Med Microbiol. 2017 66:301-311
Ducrotoy M, Syed S, Bachmann TT, Antimicrobial resistance diagnostics - time to call in the young? Lancet Infect Dis 2016 May 16;5:519-21
Henihan G, Schulze H, Corrigan DK, Giraud G, Terry JG, Hardie A, Campbell CJ, Walton AJ, Crain J, Pethig R, Templeton KE, Mount AR, Bachmann TT, Label- and amplification-free electrochemical detection of bacterial ribosomal RNA, Biosens Bioelectron. 2016 Jul 15;81:487-94.
Huang MY, Henihan G, Macdonald D, Michalowski A, Templeton K, Gibb AP, Schulze H, Bachmann TT, Rapid electrochemical detection of New Delhi metallo-betalactamase genes to enable point of care testing of carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae, Anal Chem. 2015 Aug 4;87(15):7738-45.
Gandi SK, Watson D, Kersaudy-Kerhoas M, Desmulliez MPY, Bachmann TT, Bridle H, Impact of microfluidic processing on bacterial ribonucleic acid expression Biomicrofluidics 2015 May 29;9(3):031102
Corrigan DK, Schulze H, Henihan G, Hardie A, Ciani I, Giraud G, Terry JG, Walton AJ, Pethig R, Ghazal P, Crain J, Campbell CJ, Templeton KE, Mount AR, Bachmann TT. Development of a PCR-free electrochemical point of care test for clinical detection of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Analyst. 2013 Nov 21;138(22):6997-7005.
Syed SN, Schulze H, Macdonald D, Crain J, Mount AR, Bachmann TT. Cyclic denaturation and renaturation of double-stranded DNA by redox-state switching of DNA intercalators. J Am Chem Soc. 2013 Apr 10;135(14):5399-407.
Peter H, Berggrav K, Thomas P, Pfeifer Y, Witte W, Templeton K, Bachmann TT. Direct detection and genotyping of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemases from urine by use of a new DNA microarray test. J Clin Microbiol. 2012 Dec;50(12):3990-8.
Schulze H, Barl T, Vase H, Baier S, Thomas P, Giraud G, Crain J, Bachmann TT. Enzymatic on-chip enhancement for high resolution genotyping DNA microarrays. Anal Chem. 2012 Jun 5;84(11):5080-4
University of Edinburgh Roles
- AMR DxC, the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostics Challenge competition
- Global Health Academy (Steering Group Member)
- Edinburgh Infectious Diseases - EID (Executive Committee Member)
- Centre for Security Research - CeSeR (Steering Committee Member)
External Roles
- Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance Transnational Working Group on Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Coordinator)
- Longitude Prize (Advisory Panel Member)
- Longitude Prize Discovery award (Judging Panel Member)
- UK Five Year AMR Strategy Implementation Programme UK AMR Diagnostics Collaborative (Member)
- Indian Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Devices and Diagnostics Scientific Advisory Group (Member)
- EU Horizon Prize on better use of antibiotics (Jury Member)
- Royal Society of Biology (Elected Fellow)
- Hutman Diagnostics AG (Advisory Board Member)
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN-ETN) ‘New Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases’ (Scientific Advisory Board Member)
- Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Molecular Diagnostics Europe (Scientific Advisory Board Member)
- Select Biosciences Ltd (Scientific Advisory Board Member)
- Deutsches Akademiker Netzwerk in Schottland (Co-Convener with German Consulate General in Edinburgh)