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Biography
Associate Professor in Microbiology
Phil's research interests fall into three main areas: Bacterial gene control, imaging and synthetic biology. Current research areas include:
· Construction of reporter gene systems
· Optical and nuclear imaging
· Engineering of bacteria for production of high value compounds
· Anti-Staphylococcal agents
Expertise Summary
Synthetic biology, molecular biology, Gram positive bacteria, in vivo imaging
Research Summary
Part of my research group's interest is the development of 'in situ' reporter/marker systems in bacteria, which lets us track organisms and allow expression of their genes to be measured in real… read more
Current Research
Part of my research group's interest is the development of 'in situ' reporter/marker systems in bacteria, which lets us track organisms and allow expression of their genes to be measured in real time, without destruction of the organisms under investigation. We have developed high-level bacterial bioluminescence and fluorescent protein expression systems for both Gram positive and Gram negative organisms, as well as dual-reporter operons to exploit the complementary advantages of each of these reporter systems simultaneously. Using these tools we have developed high-throughput procedures to directly interrogate bacterial replication and gene expression of intracellular bacteria such as Listeria and Staphylococcus whilst they are inside mammalian cells. Using the above approaches and other modern molecular biological techniques we are studying the way bacteria respond and adapt to changing environments. For example, we are investigating the way that staphylococci use quorum sensing mechanisms to modulate their virulence gene expression while they are in intimate contact with mammalian cells. We have also developed assay systems for screening compounds that affect essential pathways in bacteria and are currently using these for drug discovery purposes. Other work in my group utilizes synthetic biology approaches to manipulate metabolic pathways in bacteria for the production of novel products. Recently we have also been working on alternative modalities for imaging bacterial infections, these include the use of synthetic biology to develop specific markers for direct nuclear imaging (PET/CT, SPECT/CT and MRI) of bacteria.