Academic Participants

Dr. David Roper	Department of Biological Sciences, University ofWarwick.	Structural enzymology of antibiotic resistance mechanisms: enterococcal vancomycin resistance and pneumococcal penicillin resistance, structure-function relationships in peptidoglycan and lysine biosynthetic proteins.
Dr Adrian Lloyd	Department of Biological Sciences, University ofWarwick	Enzymology of antibiotic resistance mechanisms, pneumococcal penicillin resistance, structure-function relationships in peptidoglycan and lysine biosynthetic proteins
Prof. Tim Bugg	Department of Chemistry,University ofWarwick	Mechanistic enzymology of peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Synthesis of enzyme inhibitors, development of novel fluorescent assays
Prof. Chris Dowson	Department of Biological Sciences, University ofWarwick	Evolution and epidemiology of resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniaeand related streptococci.
Prof. Ian Chopra	Department of Microbiology, University ofLeeds	Biochemical studies of the early stages of peptidoglycan biosynthesis and protein transcription, molecular mechanisms of action of experimental antimicrobial agents.
Dr. Colin Fishwick	Department of Chemistry,University ofLeeds	Synthesis of de novodesigned and transition state inhibitors of peptidoglycan biosynthetic enzymes MurD and D-Ala-D-Ala ligase.
Prof. Steve Evans	Department of Physics,University ofLeeds	Application of supported lipid bilayers to the study of membrane proteins and lipid-linked peptidoglycan biosynthetic steps.
Prof. Russell Cox	Department of Chemistry,University ofBristol	Enzymology of cell wall biosynthesis in bacteria, Mechanism and inhibition of lysine and diaminopimelate biosynthesis. De-novo design and synthesis of enzyme inhibitors and mechanistic probes.
Prof. Simon Foster	Department of Microbiology, University of Sheffield	Molecular physiology of Staphylococcus aureus, bacterial cell wall structure and function, the role of autolysins in growth, cell division and differentiation, analysis of cell wall components and peptidoglycan structure, role of peptidoglycan in disease.
Prof. Del Besra	Department of Microbiology,University of Birmingham	Identification of new drug targets and drug development in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Vaccine development; identification of mechanisms of intracellular survival, replication and pathogenesis; definition of the fundamental genome of the tubercle bacillus, its phenotype and the functionality of the phenotypic characteristics through derivation of mutants.
Professor Jeff Errington	Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, University of Newcaslte-upon-Tyne	Bacterial structure and function, particularly the cell cycle and cell morphogenesis. Particular interests in cell division, chromosome segregation and the topological organization of cell wall synthesis concentrating on Bacillus subtilisas a mode system and related bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniaeand Corynebacteriumglutamicum.
Dr Waldemar Vollmer	Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, University of Newcaslte-upon-Tyne	Peptidoglycan assembly during cell elongation and division in Escherichia coli and other Gram-negative bacteria. Enzymes for cell wall modifications in pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria. Teichoic acid biosynthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Dr Richard Daniel	Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, University of Newcaslte-upon-Tyne	Bacterial cell wall helps to maintain cell shape but most importantly it provides protection to the cells, and has been one of the targets for antibiotics. However, the mechanisms involved in cell wall biosynthesis are still poorly understood. Most of the analysis has been restricted to either the biosynthetic pathway required for synthesis of the major cell wall precursors (e.g. mur or mra genes) or the final steps of peptidoglycan synthesis (carried out by penicillin-binding proteins). Very little is known about the intermediate steps whereby the precursors are exported from the cytoplasm to the outside of the cell and incorporated into the existing structure to allow cell enlargement or division.
Dr David Edwards	Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, University of Dundee	The recruitment of proteins to the bacterial cell division site. Identification of interacting partners for the Bacillus subtilisdivision site selection protein DivIVA and examining the assembly of the division complex in Staphylococcus aureus.
Professor Mark Buttner	Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre, Norwich	Signal transduction in Streptomycescoelcolorsensing and responding to changes in cell envelope. High level vancomycin resistance in S. coelicolor, cell surface proteins required for spore bearing hyphae required to escape surface tension
Dr Bernard Rawlings	Department of Chemistry,University of Leicester	Biosynthesis of polyketide antibiotics and antifungals, antimicrobial therapy.
Professor David Jones	Department of Computer Science,University College London	Genome annotation, protein structure prediction and modelling. De-novo design of drugs and inhibitors. Micro array data mining, computational modelling of protein-protein & protein-ligand interactions.
Dr Matt Hutchings	School of Biological Sciences and School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia	Bacterial signal transduction. In particular how bacteria sense and respond to cell envelope stress; Other research interests include protein secretion and the assembly of cell surface proteins in the streptomycetes and mycobacteria.
Dr Hee-Jeon Hong	Department of Biochemistry University of Cambridge The Hopkins Building Tennis Court Road Cambridge	Characterization of bacterial responses to cell wall-specific antibiotic attack: how changes in the bacterial cell wall induced by antibiotic attack are communicated to the chromosome and transduced into appropriate gene expression, thereby triggering adaptive responses using Streptomyces coelicolor as a model system.
Dr Daniel Mictchell	CSRI - UHCW Walsgrave Campus University of Warwick Coventry CV2 2DX UK	Pathogen recognition by the innate immune system.
Professor Peter Lambert	School of Life and Health Sciences Aston University Aston Triangle Birmingham B4 7ET UK	Microbial pathogenicity, virulence factors, adhesion and colonisation, resistance to host defences. Antibiotics, mechanisms of action and resistance. Structure, function, properties and biosynthesis of microbial envelopes. Diagnostics for infectious diseases, molecular typing and epidemiology. Molecular modelling of antibiotics, microbial proteins and polysaccharides. Computer-aided drug design.
Dr. Galina Mukamolova	Lecturer in Microbial Physiology Department of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation Medical Sciences Building University of Leicester Leicester, LE1 9HN UK	Molecular mechanisms of bacterial dormancy and resuscitation. Role of serine-threonine kinase in growth initiation and resuscitation Antibiotics (including antimicrobial peptides) and antibiotic tolerance Cell wall alterations as markers for the physiological state of bacterial cells

UK Bacterial Cell Wall Biosynthesis Network

Academic Participants

Department of Biochemistry

University of Cambridge

The Hopkins Building

Tennis Court Road

Cambridge