Meet the Researcher: Dr Jordan Sealey
In our Meet the Researcher series, we shine a spotlight on the people driving innovation across the AMR ecosystem. In this edition, we speak to Dr Jordan Sealey, a researcher at Bangor University whose work focuses on AMR across humans, animals and the environment through a One Health lens. Jordan discusses her journey into research and her recent commission with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) exploring the future of wastewater surveillance for public health.
What is your background, and what sparked your interest in starting a career in research and specifically within the AMR space?
I’m a researcher working on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across humans, animals and the environment, with a background in molecular microbiology, genomic epidemiology and, more recently, wastewater surveillance.
I wasn’t set on a career in research, I just knew I’d always been interested in the natural world, especially animals and the environment. I originally thought I wanted to be a vet, but ended up studying Zoology, which gave me a much broader view of biology and research. From there, I became increasingly interested in infectious disease, genetics and how organisms adapt to survive. That led me to a Master’s at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where I studied the biology and control of parasites and disease vectors.
My PhD at the University of Bristol was what really drew me into both research and AMR. The project looked at AMR across humans, animals and the environment, rather than treating them as separate problems, and that broader One Health perspective has stayed with me ever since. What struck me most was how interconnected AMR is. Resistant bacteria do not respect boundaries, and trying to understand where they come from, how they move between settings, and what that means for people, animals and the environment is what I found so interesting. Since then, I’ve stayed in the field because I enjoy the investigative side of the work, but also because AMR is an increasingly important global health problem.
What led you to undertake the commission?
The commission came out of work I was already leading through the EPSRC Digital Health Hub for AMR at Bangor University. A major part of my current role focuses on wastewater-based AMR surveillance and how wastewater data might fit into wider One Health surveillance. As part of that, I led the Antimicrobial Resistance in the Water Sector workshop in June 2025, which brought together people from across the water industry, academia, regulation and public health, and fed into a report on the UK water sector’s role in AMR.
The commission with UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) developed naturally from those discussions, but with a broader public health focus. It was an opportunity to look beyond AMR specifically and consider how wastewater surveillance might fit into public health systems more generally, particularly in the context of changing water-sector regulation, monitoring infrastructure and wider biosurveillance ambitions. For me, it was a good fit because it connected to the research and stakeholder engagement I was already doing, while also giving me the chance to think more about the policy and regulatory challenges involved in making wastewater surveillance work in practice.
Can you explain the commission?
The commission focused on how wastewater surveillance could support public health surveillance in England and Wales, and what would be needed to make that sustainable in the longer term. While wastewater monitoring has gained a lot of attention in recent years, building it into routine public health systems is far from straightforward.
The work looked at the current wastewater surveillance landscape, including how monitoring is currently carried out, who the key organisations are, where the main governance and regulatory barriers sit, and how ongoing changes in the water sector might shape future opportunities. A big part of the commission involved speaking to stakeholders across public health, regulation, academia and the water industry to understand what is already in place, what is missing, and what different models for future surveillance might look like in practice.
The aim was to provide a clearer picture of the opportunities, challenges and next steps for wastewater surveillance as part of future public health systems.
Did you face any challenges?
Yes, definitely. One of the main challenges was that wastewater surveillance sits across multiple sectors, each with their own priorities, language and responsibilities. Public health, water companies, regulators and researchers are not always asking the same questions, so a big part of the commission was understanding where those perspectives overlap and where the main barriers are.
It was also a project that sat much more on the policy and systems side than the laboratory side, which meant working through questions around governance, regulation, data access and who would ultimately be responsible for different parts of any future surveillance system. On top of that, it was a relatively short commission, so there was only so far it could go. In many ways it felt like the tip of the iceberg, but that also reinforced the value of the work, because before you can build something sustainable, you first need a clear picture of the landscape, the barriers and where the opportunities might be.
What do you believe will be the most important piece of the puzzle in tackling AMR?
If I had to pick one thing, it would be getting much better at identifying where the highest-risk transmission routes and selection pressures actually are, and then acting on them. We know that antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention and good hygiene are all central to tackling AMR. But if we do not understand where the biggest risks sit, whether that is in healthcare, food production, wastewater, community settings or somewhere else, it is much harder to target interventions effectively.
That is where good surveillance becomes important. For me, the value of One Health surveillance is not collecting more data, but using it to work out where resistant bacteria are emerging, how they are moving between sectors, and where interventions are likely to have the greatest impact. Ultimately, tackling AMR needs both sides: reducing unnecessary antimicrobial use and transmission wherever we can, while also building a much clearer evidence base for where action is most needed.
Final reflections
One thing this work has reinforced for me is that tackling AMR is not just about generating evidence, it is also about understanding how that evidence can actually be used. Wastewater surveillance has a lot of potential, but making it work in practice means thinking about systems, responsibilities and how different sectors fit together, not just the science itself.
It has also reminded me how valuable it is to bring different groups into the same conversation. Public health, regulators, researchers and the water sector often look at the same problem from very different angles, and there is a lot to be gained from joining those perspectives up earlier. For me, that has probably been one of the most interesting parts of the commission.
