Microbiology Phd

Research overview

In the microbiology research group we are researching novel strategies to fight against infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. We are doing this by understanding the molecular mechanisms used by microbes to cause disease and how the host immunity works to defence the host against them. We are working on a range of organisms with high relevance in the clinic. Some of our areas of interest are bacterial signalling including quorum sensing, effector proteins, virulence, biofilms, predatory bacteria that eat pathogens and the discovery of novel anti-infective agents.

We are also studying how microbes evolve, how cell surfaces interact with the environment and viruses and on molecular machineries that segregate proteins, organelles and chromosomes and those that replicate and repair DNA.

Research facilities

The facilities supporting this research area include access to a wide range of state of the art microscopy facilities including:

• a super-resolution microscope and the School of Life Sciences Imaging Unit SLIM
• analytical chemistry labs including LC/MSMS
• deep sequencing laboratories and a flow cytometry facility

All laboratories are well equipped for microbiology work, molecular biology including transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene regulation and protein purification and analysis. The groups also have access to medicinal chemistry, structural biology and synthetic biology facilities.