Institute of Genetics

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  Staff & Students

Prof Elizabeth Sockett

Overview Research Publications Opportunities
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Professor (Institute Member)

Room: C15 (Medical School)

Address: Institute of Genetics, The University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK

Tel: +44 (0)115 823 0325 (int 30325)
Fax: 0115 823 0338
Email: liz.sockett@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Overview: Genetics and applications of predatory Bdellovibrio bacteria 

Our research group studies the predatory d-Proteobacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. Bdellovibrio are tiny bacteria that naturally invade and eat the pathogenic bacteria that cause skin ulcer, burn & pressure sore infections in people, whilst not being infectious. Our long-term goals are to establish Bdellovibrio as a treatment for Gram-negative bacterial infections in humans, and in farmed shellfish which can cause human disease.

Our achievements include: the establishment of a genetic system to manipulate Bdellovibrio, showing that flagellar motility, although important for locating prey, is not essential for prey-entry, but that surface pili are; identification of a group of prey-bacterial genes that are upregulated by Bdellovibrio attack; establishing that Bdellovibrio predation is effective in bodily fluids including serum and begun characterising the immune response of humans to BdellovibrioIn collaboration with Professor John King we developed a mathematical model of Bdellovibrio predation in the presence of live decoy bacteria, of importance in establishing how Bdellovibrio could be applied as a “living antibiotic”. Collaboration with Dr Stephan Schuster resulted in publication of the first genome sequence from a predatory bacterium From this genome sequence we have identified a range of surface proteins that are potentially key to the predatory process, and are taking a multi-disciplinary proteomic, ultrastructural and genetic approach to understand their functions, with funding from the Human Frontier Science Programme, with our collaborators Dr Janine Maddock (University of Michigan) and Prof Shin-Ichi Aizawa (University of Hiroshima). We have also identified hydrolytic genes and are testing their roles in predation with funding from the Wellcome Trust.

Education, appointments and honours

BSc University of Leeds 1983; PhD University College London 1986; Research Associate, University of Illinois 1986-88; Research Associate, University of Oxford 1988-1990. Lecturer (1991-98) University of Nottingham Life Sciences. Lecturer (1998) Snr Lecturer (2001) Reader (2004) Professor (2005), University of Nottingham Institute of Genetics.

Lord Dearing Award 2000, Royal Society BAAS Millennium Award 2000, Society for General Microbiology Peter Wildy Prize 2006, Daiwa-Adrian Prize for Anglo-Japanese Science 2007.

Selected Publications

  • SOCKETT, R.E. and LAMBERT, C., 2004. Bdellovibrio as therapeutic agents: a predatory renaissance?. Nature Reviews: Microbiology, 2(8), 669-674.
  • LAMBERT, C., EVANS, K.J., TILL, R., HOBLEY, L., CAPENESS, M., RENDULIC, S., SCHUSTER, S.C., AIZAWA, S.-I. and SOCKETT, R.E., 2006. Characterizing the flagellar filament and the role of motility in bacterial prey-penetration by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. Molecular Microbiology, 60(2), 274-286.
  • HOBLEY, L., KING, J.R. and SOCKETT, R.E., 2006. Bdellovibrio predation in the presence of decoys: Three-way bacterial interactions revealed by mathematical and experimental analyses. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 72(10), 6757-6765.
  • RENDULIC, S., JAGTAP, P., ROSINUS, A., EPPINGER, M., BAAR, C., LANZ, C., KELLER, H., LAMBERT, C., EVANS, K.J., GOESMANN, A., MEYER, F., SOCKETT, R.E. and SCHUSTER, S.C., 2004. A predator unmasked: life cycle of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus from a genomic perspective. Science, 303(5658), 689-692.
  • LAMBERT, C., MOREHOUSE, K.A., CHANG, C.-Y. and SOCKETT, R.E., 2006. Bdellovibrio: growth and development during the predatory cycle. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 9(6), 639-644.
  • WOODS, R.D., TAKAHASHI, N., ASLAM, A., PLEASS, R.J., AIZAWA, S.-I. and SOCKETT, R.E., 2007. Bifunctional nanotube scaffolds for diverse ligands are purified simply from Escherichia coli strains coexpressing two functionalized flagellar genes. Nano Letters, 7(6), 1809-1816.
  • EVANS, K.J., LAMBERT, C. and SOCKETT, R.E., 2007. Predation by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100 requires type IV pili. Journal of Bacteriology, 189(13), 4850-4859.

Group Members

Dr Robert Atterbury Research Fellow +44(0)115 951 6396
internal (Vet School) 16396
Michael Capeness Technician & p-t Postgraduate Student +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317		 C15
Dr Laura Hobley Research Associate +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317		 C15
Dr Carey Lambert Research Fellow +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317		 C15
Rob Till Senior Technician +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317		 C15
Marilyn Whitworth Technician (p/t) +44 (0)115 951 5151
internal (QMC) 19216		 C3 & C15
Andrew Fenton Postgraduate Student +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317 		C15
Thomas Lerner Postgraduate Student +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317 		C15
David Milner Postgraduate Student +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317 		C15
Maximilian Harris MRes Student +44 (0)115 823 0317
internal (QMC) 30317 		C15