Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical SciencesMicrobiology & industrial biotechnology
Microorganisms are fundamentally important to every process on the planet including global nutrient cycling and influencing the lives of humans, plants and animals as key members of the microbiome or as pathogens. The Microbiology and Industrial Biotechnology Research group at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science has research interests that encompass a wide range of microbiology and biotechnology with a clear focus on the basic biology of microorganisms (Herron, Hoskisson, Javelle, Roberts & Tucker) ecology, evolution, discovery and production of specialised metabolites from Actinobacteria (Duncan, Herron, Hoskisson, Pritchard & Tucker), Antimicrobial resistant infections (Duncan, Herron, Hoskisson Roberts & Tucker), discovery of novel therapies to combat a range of microbial infections (Roberts & Tucker), Genomics of microorganisms (Herron, Hoskisson, Pritchard, Roberts & Tucker), Computational biology (Pritchard & Tucker), identification and characterisation of drug targets (Hoskisson, Javelle, Roberts & Tucker), vaccine development (Roberts), Diagnostics (Hoskisson).
The Microbiology and Industrial Biotechnology Research has strong links with Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre and Scottish University Life Science Alliance.
Funding in the Microbiology and Industrial Biotechnology Research group is from BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC, iUK, IBioIC, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society, Tenovus Scotland and a number of Industrial sources.
We are always happy to hear from prospective PhD students and post-doctoral researchers who would like to come and work with us - please email the appropriate research group member below to discuss funding opportunities.
Research group members
Dr Katherine Duncan
Senior Lecturer in Microbiology
The Duncan lab investigates the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on microbial chemistry for antibiotic biodiscovery. Comparative ‘omics approaches, including genomics and metabolomics, underpin our research.
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Dr Paul Herron
Senior Lecturer in Microbiology
Research in the Herron Group is focussed on chromosome segregation in Actinobacteria, genomics of Actinobacteria, microbial ecology and interactions between bacteriophages and their host.
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Professor Paul A Hoskisson
Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Engineering Biology and Professor of Molecular Microbiology
Research in the Hoskisson laboratory is focussed on the evolution of metabolism and biosynthesis of specialised metabolites by Streptomyces and on the biology of the causative agent of Diphtheria, Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
Paul was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021 and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2016. Paul leads the Microbiology and Industrial Biotechnology Research group and is a member of Microbiology Society Council.
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Dr Helina Marshall
Chancellors Fellow
The Marshall lab seeks to investigate the interactions between commensals and pathogens and to explore the mechanisms by which bacteria adapt to hosts in the face of immune challenge. Our work focuses on Streptococcus pneumoniae and Salmonella enterica.
Helina is also the Editor-in-Chief of the UK Microbiology Society’s Open Access Platform, Access Microbiology.
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Dr Arnaud Javelle
Chancellor’s Fellow
Research in the Javelle Group is focused on membrane proteins involved in transport of ions across cellular membranes and in signalling processes relating to ion availability. Studies of membrane transporters/channels have had a great impact on our understanding human disease and drug design with around 30% of current clinically marked drugs targeted to these proteins. We use well-studied bacterial model organisms and multidisciplinary approaches to study ammonium transporters from the Amt/Rh family and the SulP/SLC26A family of sulphate permeases.
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Dr Leighton Pritchard
Chancellors Fellow
Research in my group aims to understand biological systems and processes through computing, mathematics, and statistics. Our work includes: computational biology tools; microbial genomics, taxonomic classification and phylogenetics; host-microbe interactions; molecular diagnostics; and systems and synthetic biology.
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Professor Craig Roberts
Professor
Research in the Roberts Group is concerned with (i) the interaction of Toxoplasma gondii with it’s host and how this knowledge can be harnessed to effectively control or vaccinate against this parasite (ii) the influence of sex and pregnancy associated hormones on infection and immunity (iii) identification, validation and exploitation of antimicrobial targets in Acanthamoeba and (iv) Vaccines and improved chemotherapies for difficult to treat prokaryotic and viral pathogens.
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99.99% of biological diversity on earth is microbial
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