Jess Thompson is a microbiologist, with a research background in host-microbe interactions. She investigated how Salmonella virulence factors affect intramacrophage survival and replication of this bacterium during her PhD in Cellular Microbiology with David Holden at Imperial College London. She then moved to the Institute Gulbenkian de Ciencia, Portugal. As a postdoc, she first researched intra- and inter-bacterial signalling during E. coli gut colonisation and upon interaction with the gut microbiome with Karina Xavier. Then she moved to Miguel Soares’s research team to investigate mechanisms of disease tolerance, resistance and metabolic adaptation to bacterial infections including sepsis. In August 2022, Jess joined the team at Nature Microbiology as a locum editor. She is now a permanent member of the team and became a senior editor in January 2025. She handles manuscripts in the areas of bacterial pathogenesis, bacterial physiology, microbes and cancer, plus some clinical and epidemiological research.