Xav Harrison CV

Profile

I am a molecular ecologist with broad interests in statistics, genetics and behaviour. My primary research centres on the role of microbes in determining human and animal health, including how animal microbiomes provide protection from disease, or optimise host nutrition. More recently I have become interested in the threats posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and how human and animal microbiomes may prevent, or promote, the spread of microbes resistant to antibiotics.

Current Grants

• NERC Pushing the Frontiers (Co-Lead; 2026-2029) The evolution and maintenance of group identity in animal societies.

• NERC Pushing the Frontiers (Co-PI) Testing evolutionary hypotheses for the long-term maintenance of balanced immunogenetic polymorphisms in a wildlife model (Lead Tschirren, Exeter).

Education

• 2011 Ph.D in Migration Ecology & Genetics, University of Exeter
• 2006 BSc. Class I Biology, University of York

Employment

• 2025 - Present Associate Professor, University of Exeter
• 2021 - 2025 Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
• 2019 - 2021 Lecturer, University of Exeter
• 2013-2018 Research Fellow, Zoological Society of London
• 2011-2013 BBSRC Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Exeter
• 2007-2011 NERC PhD Student, University of Exeter

Selected Publications

• Meadows N, Delahay R, McDonald R, Powell S, Hopkins K, Arnold L, Harrison XA. Faecal microbiome varies with social group, age and bovine tuberculosis infection in the European Badger (Meles meles). https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/9441/

• Bowland AC, Bersacola E, Ramon M, Bessa J, Melin AD, Carrigan MA, Harrison XA, Hockings KJ. Wild chimpanzees share fermented fruits. Current Biology. 2025 Apr 21;35(8):R279-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.067

• McMillan K, Harrison XA et al. (2024) Estimation of the size, density, and demographic distribution of the UK pet dog population. Scientific Reports 14, 31746. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-82358-y

• Wallace M, Wille M, Geoghegan JL, Imrie RM, Hokmes EC, Harrison XA, Longdon B (2024). Making sense of the virome in light of ecology and evolution. Proceedings B 292: 20250389. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.0389

• Capilla-Lashera P, Bircher N, Brown A, Harrison XA, Reed T, York J, Cram D, Rutz C, Walker L, Naguib M, Young AJ (2024) Evolution of sex differences in cooperation may be driven by trade-offs with dispersal. PLOS Biology 22 e3002859 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002859

Teaching

I teach on a range of UG and PG modules, including

• BIO2407 Population and Community Ecology (Co-Convener)
• BIO2459 Scillies Field Course (Module Lead)
• BIO3459 Pyrenees Field Course (Co-Convener)