Professor Ben Howden is a medical microbiologist, infectious diseases physician and molecular biologist. He is Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory (MDU PHL), Medical Director of the Doherty Centre for Applied Microbial Genomics and Head of the Howden Research Group. In his roles, Ben is responsible for the provision of public health laboratory services, the translation of microbial genomics into public health and clinical microbiology, and research investigating antimicrobial resistance and bacterial pathogenesis, evolution and host-pathogen interactions.