Andy Timms

Contact

• workFood Sciences
  Sutton Bonington Campus
  Sutton Bonington
  Leicestershire
  LE12 5RD
  UK
• work0115 951 6208
• fax0115 951 6162
• andrew.timms@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Summary

Campylobacter is one of the leading causes of infectious gastroenteritis in the developed world. It is a foodbourne pathogen and has been linked to a variety of foodstuffs but particularly to… read more

Recent Publications

• TIMMS, ANDREW R, CAMBRAY-YOUNG, JOANNA, SCOTT, ANDREW E, PETTY, NICOLA K, CONNERTON, PHILLIPPA L, CLARKE, LOUISE, SEEGER, KATHY, QUAIL, MIKE, CUMMINGS, NICOLA, MASKELL, DUNCAN J, THOMSON, NICHOLAS R and CONNERTON IAN F, 2010. Evidence for a lineage of virulent bacteriophages that target Campylobacter. BMC genomics. 11, 214
• CAIRNS, BENJAMIN J, TIMMS, ANDREW R, JANSEN, VINCENT A A, CONNERTON, IAN F and PAYNE, ROBERT J H, 2009. Quantitative models of in vitro bacteriophage-host dynamics and their application to phage therapy. PLoS pathogens. 5(1), e1000253
• EL-SHIBINY, AYMAN, SCOTT, ANDREW, TIMMS, ANDREW, METAWEA, YASSER, CONNERTON, PHILLIPPA and CONNERTON, IAN, 2009. Application of a group II Campylobacter bacteriophage to reduce strains of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli colonizing broiler chickens. Journal of Food Protection. 72(4), 733-40
• TIMMS, A.R., CONNERTON, P.L. and CONNERTON, I.F., 2008. Bacteriophage intervention to reduce Campylobacter in poultry. In: GARNSWORTHY, P.C. and WISEMAN, J., eds., Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition - 2008 Nottingham University Press. 121-145

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Current Research

Campylobacter is one of the leading causes of infectious gastroenteritis in the developed world. It is a foodbourne pathogen and has been linked to a variety of foodstuffs but particularly to contaminated poultry products. One of the ways currently being examined to reduce the level of Campylobacter in food is the application of Campylobacter specific bacteriophages to poultry before slaughter. Bacteriophages are viruses that attack and kill bacteria and unlike antibiotics will replicate and reproduce once introduced to susceptible bacterial hosts. Phages also have other advantages over chemical antibiotics including; an apparent lack of human toxicity, specificity for the target organism meaning that other beneficial microbes are not killed, and the ready availability of phages in the environment which makes isolation of new phages relatively easy compared to the lengthy processes involved in tradition antibiotic discovery.

I am currently working, in collaboration with a group at Bristol University, to produce a mathematical model describing the interaction of Campylobacter and associated Campylobacter specific bacteriophages. Initially we aim to model in vitro cultures as a step towards understanding the interaction of bacteria and bacteriophage predation. The model should enable predictions to be made for the appropriate timing and level of bacteriophage intervention, these can then be easily tested in an in vitro system. However, this is but the first step, as the model will be developed and extended to describe in vivo situations to test the viability of phage therapy in poultry and again to provide testable predictions of the efficacy of bacteriophage therapy in livestock production.

Past Research

My previous research has been focused on mutational mechanisms in bacteria, particularly those processes occurring in stationary phase. In the environment, unlike the laboratory setting, the majority of bacteria spend most of their time growing at sub-optimal rates or in stationary phase. They are also exposed to a variety of endogenous and exogenous mutagens which all affect mutation rates and mutation processes.

• TIMMS, ANDREW R, CAMBRAY-YOUNG, JOANNA, SCOTT, ANDREW E, PETTY, NICOLA K, CONNERTON, PHILLIPPA L, CLARKE, LOUISE, SEEGER, KATHY, QUAIL, MIKE, CUMMINGS, NICOLA, MASKELL, DUNCAN J, THOMSON, NICHOLAS R and CONNERTON IAN F, 2010. Evidence for a lineage of virulent bacteriophages that target Campylobacter. BMC genomics. 11, 214
• CAIRNS, BENJAMIN J, TIMMS, ANDREW R, JANSEN, VINCENT A A, CONNERTON, IAN F and PAYNE, ROBERT J H, 2009. Quantitative models of in vitro bacteriophage-host dynamics and their application to phage therapy. PLoS pathogens. 5(1), e1000253
• EL-SHIBINY, AYMAN, SCOTT, ANDREW, TIMMS, ANDREW, METAWEA, YASSER, CONNERTON, PHILLIPPA and CONNERTON, IAN, 2009. Application of a group II Campylobacter bacteriophage to reduce strains of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli colonizing broiler chickens. Journal of Food Protection. 72(4), 733-40
• TIMMS, A.R., CONNERTON, P.L. and CONNERTON, I.F., 2008. Bacteriophage intervention to reduce Campylobacter in poultry. In: GARNSWORTHY, P.C. and WISEMAN, J., eds., Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition - 2008 Nottingham University Press. 121-145
• SCOTT, A.E., TIMMS, A.R., CONNERTON, P.L., LOC CARRILLO, C., ADZFA RADZUM, K. and CONNERTON, I.F., 2007. Genome dynamics of <i> campylobacter jejuni</i> in response to bacteriophage predation PLoS Pathogens. 3(8), e119
• SCOTT, A.E., TIMMS, A.R., CONNERTON, P.L., EL-SHIBINY, A. and CONNERTON, I.F., 2007. Bacteriophage influence Campylobacter jejuni types populating broiler chickens. Environmental Microbiology. 9(9), 2341-2353
• VANDEWIELE, DOMINIQUE, FERNÁNDEZ DE HENESTROSA, ANTONIO R, TIMMS, ANDREW R, BRIDGES, BRYN A and WOODGATE, ROGER, 2002. Sequence analysis and phenotypes of five temperature sensitive mutator alleles of dnaE, encoding modified alpha-catalytic subunits of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III holoenzyme. Mutation research. 499(1), 85-95
• TIMMS, ANDREW R and BRIDGES, BRYN A, 2002. DNA polymerase V-dependent mutator activity in an SOS-induced Escherichia coli strain with a temperature-sensitive DNA polymerase III. Mutation research. 499(1), 97-101
• BRIDGES, B A, FOSTER, P L and TIMMS, A R, 2001. Effect of endogenous carotenoids on "adaptive" mutation in Escherichia coli FC40. Mutation research. 473(1), 109-19
• ABDUL-TEHRANI, H, HUDSON, A J, CHANG, Y S, TIMMS, A R, HAWKINS, C, WILLIAMS, J M, HARRISON, P M, GUEST, J R and ANDREWS, S C, 1999. Ferritin mutants of Escherichia coli are iron deficient and growth impaired, and fur mutants are iron deficient. Journal of Bacteriology. 181(5), 1415-28
• TIMMS, A R, MURIEL, W and BRIDGES, B A, 1999. A UmuD,C-dependent pathway for spontaneous G:C to C:G transversions in stationary phase Escherichia coli mut Y. Mutation research. 435(1), 77-80
• TIMMS, A R and BRIDGES, B A, 1998. Reversion of the tyrosine ochre strain Escherichia coli WU3610 under starvation conditions depends on a new gene tas. Genetics. 148(4), 1627-35
• BRIDGES, B A and TIMMS, A R, 1997. Mutation in Escherichia coli under starvation conditions: a new pathway leading to small deletions in strains defective in mismatch correction. EMBO Journal. 16(11), 3349-56
• TIMMS, A R and BRIDGES, B A, 1996. The tyrT locus of Escherichia coli B. Journal of Bacteriology. 178(8), 2469-70
• TIMMS, A R, DEWAN, K K and BRIDGES, B A, 1995. Growth rate effects of mutations conferring streptomycin-dependence and of ancillary mutations in the rpsL gene of Escherichia coli: implications for the clustering (hypermutation) hypothesis for spontaneous mutation. Mutagenesis. 10(5), 463-6
• TIMMS, A R and BRIDGES, B A, 1993. Double, independent mutational events in the rpsL gene of Escherichia coli: an example of hypermutability? Molecular Microbiology. 9(2), 335-42
• TIMMS, A R, STEINGRIMSDOTTIR, H, LEHMANN, A R and BRIDGES, B A, 1992. Mutant sequences in the rpsL gene of Escherichia coli B/r: mechanistic implications for spontaneous and ultraviolet light mutagenesis. Molecular and General Genetics. 232(1), 89-96