Natalie Ring
Clinical Trial Coordinator and Senior Research Scientist
Contact details
Address
- Street
-
The Roslin Institute
Easter Bush Campus
Midlothian - City
- Post code
- EH25 9RG
Background
I am a Senior Research Scientist in microbial genomics at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. My research develops and applies clinical genomic solutions to benefit animal health and welfare. I work closely with veterinary clinicians across the Easter Bush campus to develop sequencing-based approaches to difficult clinical and research problems, with an increasing interest in One Health applications.
I originally joined the University of Edinburgh in December 2019 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Laboratory for Bacterial Evolution and Pathogenesis (LBEP) at the Roslin Institute. In that role, I developed rapid metagenomic methods for culture-independent diagnosis of bacterial infections and prediction of antimicrobial resistance in dogs using nanopore sequencing. Since moving into my current role in 2023, I have expanded this into a broader portfolio spanning infectious disease diagnostics, genomic epidemiology, microbiome and resistome surveillance, challenging clinical samples, and translational sequencing research across multiple veterinary species.
I also manage the day-to-day running of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies’ Hospital for Small Animals Clinical Biobank, supporting the collection and archiving of veterinary samples for future research.
Prior to joining the Roslin Institute, I worked from 2012–2016 as a bioinformatician for the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium at MRC Harwell. In 2016, I moved to the University of Bath to study for a PhD, where I used long-read sequencing, particularly Oxford Nanopore sequencing, to investigate the genome of Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough.
Qualifications
Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), 2026
PhD, University of Bath, 2016-2020
Investigating the genome of Bordetella pertussis using long-read sequencing
PGDip Science Communication & Public Engagement, University of Edinburgh, 2014-2016
BSc (Hons) Biochemistry with Professional Placement, University of Bath, 2008-2012
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
- 2026-present Ned Belchir, SRC undergraduate vet project (principal supervisor) - Developing nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing solutions for FFPE tissues
- 2025-present Rhod Evans, PhD student (principal supervisor) - Developing nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing solutions for equine infections
- 2023-present, Ana Martinez-Lopez, PhD student (co-supervisor) - An investigation of the canine gut microbiome and resistome across the first year of life
Past PhD students supervised
- 2024, Kamilia Hanani, Visiting MSc Thesis student (project supervisor) - Investigating genome arrangement in Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria
- 2024, Matthew McNeill, Undergraduate Honours Project student (project supervisor) - Building a bespoke veterinary pathogen database for metagenomic diagnostics
- 2022, Vesa Qarkaxhija, PhD rotation student (rotation project supervisor) - Testing the limits of intra-sample bacterial strain resolution with nanopore sequencing
Research summary
My main research interests are:
- microbial genomics
- clinical metagenomics
- antimicrobial resistance
- genomic epidemiology
- comparative genomics
- applications of nanopore sequencing
- methods development for difficult-to-sequence samples
- bioinformatics
I am also a keen science communicator, and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Science Communication and Public Engagement at the University of Edinburgh in 2016.
Current project grants
May 2026 - Easter Bush Animal Health and Welfare Cluster Pump Priming Grant
• Lead investigator on a 6-month grant, “Comparative genomics of Serratia marcescens isolates from patients and the environment in a small animal hospital to identify outbreaks and inform infection control”
April 2026 - Hannah Dairy Research Foundation
• Lead investigator on a 2-year grant, “Developing an effective and cost-efficient workflow for bacterial and antibiotic resistance profiling of milk for dairy herd health surveillance”
October 2025 - European Society of Veterinary Ophthalmology
• Co-investigator on a 1-year grant, “Molecular Characterisation and Resistome Profiling of Serratia marcescens Isolates from Canine Ulcerative Keratitis”
April 2025 - Petplan Scientific Grant
• Lead investigator on a 3-year grant, including PhD position, “Pathogen detection, surveillance and analysis for equine infections using rapid culture-free sequencing (Ponytails)” to adapt and validate a nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing pipeline for the diagnosis of equine infections
April 2025 - Dogs Trust Canine Welfare Grant
• Lead investigator on a 12-month pilot grant, “Developing a liquid biopsy point of care solution to support canine cancer diagnosis”
February 2024 - European College of Veterinary Surgeons Resident Research Grant
• Co-investigator on a 2-year grant, “Rapid identification of antimicrobial resistant bacteria from surgical site infections using nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing”
Conference details
April 2026 - Microbiology Society Annual Conference
- The ICC, Belfast, UK
- Poster: Can we predict it? A systematic comparison of tools for predicting antimicrobial resistance from nanopore sequence data
March 2026 - Advanced Applications of Sequencing Technologies for Infectious Diseases
- One Health Genomics Edinburgh and Edinburgh Infectious Diseases, Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: One Health applications of Nanopore DNA sequencing across a veterinary campus
February 2026 - Invited seminar speaker
- NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: Dogtails: Rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections using DNA sequencing
December 2025 - ION Bru (Scotland Nanopore users group meeting)
- University of Glasgow,UK
- Presentation: Can we predict it? A systematic comparison of tools for predicting antimicrobial resistance from nanopore sequence data
November 2025 - Edinburgh Next Generation of Genomics 2025
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: Can we predict it? A systematic comparison of tools for predicting antimicrobial resistance from nanopore sequence data
November 2025 - Invited seminar speaker
- University of Glasgow, UK
- Presentation: Zootails: One Health applications of real-time Nanopore DNA sequencing in a veterinary hospital
August 2025 - One Health Genomics Edinburgh Community Meeting
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: Using nanopore sequencing to analyse pathobiomes from FFPE tissue
June 2025 - Easter Bush - School of Biological Sciences Symposium
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: One Health applications of real-time Nanopore DNA sequencing in a veterinary hospital
June 2024 - Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Annual Symposium
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Poster prize: Dogstails: Rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections using DNA sequencing
June 2024 - One Health Genomics Edinburgh Community Meeting
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: Rapid diagnostic sequencing for pathogen identification and AMR prediction
February 2024 - International Women in Science Day
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Poster prize, including presentation: Dogstails: Rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections using DNA sequencing
November 2023 - Companion Animal Genetic Health (CAGH)
- University of Edinburgh, UK
- Lightning talk & poster: Dogstails: Rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections using DNA sequencing
November 2023 - One Health Fair
- UK Mission to the European Union, Brussels, Belgium
- Sequencing showcase
May 2023 - London Calling (Oxford Nanopore Annual Meeting)
- Old Billingsgate, London, UK
- Secret Cinema Presentation: Zootails: Implementing Nanopore Sequencing for Veterinary Diagnostics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE7T_N2igE0&list=PLxpxXZj-IgXzS0HpfRQrzlq7n9gsLMdT0&index=32)
- Metagenomics and isolate sequencing showcase (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCt65m0ep8&list=PLxpxXZj-IgXzS0HpfRQrzlq7n9gsLMdT0&index=84)
April 2023 - Newcastle Nanopore Day
- Newcastle University
- Presentation: Zootails: Implementing Nanopore Sequencing for Veterinary Diagnostics
March 2023 - ION Bru (Scotland Nanopore users group meeting)
- University of Edinburgh
- Presentation: Introduction for new Nanopore Users
March 2023 - STEM for Britain finals
- Houses of Parliament, London, UK
- Poster: Dogstails: rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections using DNA sequencing (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22731137.v1)
September 2022 - ION Bru (Scotland Nanopore users group meeting)
- Edinburgh Zoo
- Presentation: Introduction for new Nanopore Users
May 2022 - London Calling (Oxford Nanopore Annual Meeting)
- Old Billingsgate, London, UK
- Presentation: DoGsTAils: Developing nanopore-based diagnostic approaches for the effective antimicrobial stewardship of canine infections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwq-obg3AKw&list=PLxpxXZj-IgXwM8jeAh74uKsM2JdnFja74&index=42)
April 2022 - Microbiology Society Annual Conference
- The ICC, Belfast, UK
- Presentation: DoGsTAils: Developing nanopore-based diagnostic approaches for the effective antimicrobial stewardship of canine infections
July 2020 - Edinburgh Nanopore Day/ION Bru (Scotland Nanopore users group meeting)
- Online
- Presentation: DoGsTAilS: Developing a nanopore-based diagnostic approach for the effective antibiotic treatment of canine infections
June 2020 - London Calling (Oxford Nanopore Annual Meeting)
- Online
- Lighting talk & Poster: DoGsTAilS: Developing a nanopore-based diagnostic approach for the effective antibiotic treatment of canine infections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJrmEbJh_0w, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12924650.v1)
December 2019 - Ion Bru (Scotland Nanopore users group meeting)
- National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
- Presentation: Ultra-long reads and ultra-long duplications: deciphering the mysteries of the Bordetella pertussis genome
Organiser
March 2026 - Advanced Applications of Sequencing Technologies for Infectious Diseases (One Health Genomics Edinburgh and Edinburgh Infectious Diseases joint meeting)
- Edinburgh, UK
December 2025 - ION BRU (Nanopore Users Community Group)
- Glasgow, UK
May 2025 - ION BRU (Nanopore Users Community Group)
- Edinburgh, UK
October 2024 - Edinburgh Next Generation of Genomics
- Edinburgh, UK
May 2024 - ION BRU (Nanopore Users Community Group)
- Edinburgh, UK
November 2023 - Edinburgh Next Generation of Genomics
- Edinburgh, UK
October 2023 - ION BRU (Nanopore Users Community Group)
- Glasgow, UK
March 2023 - ION BRU (Nanopore Users Community Group)
- Edinburgh, UK
September 2022 - ION BRU (Nanopore Users Community Group)
- Edinburgh, UK
May 2022 - Edinburgh Next Generation of Genomics
- Edinburgh, UK