Molecular Microbiology News Archive

Year:

2009 | 2008 | 2007

2009

JIF Prize for Excellence in Science Communication
October 2009
At the Annual Science Meeting, Frank Oldfield (Chairman of the John Innes Foundation Trustees) presented the awards for the newly introduced JIF prizes for Excellence in Science Communication to Jan Claesen, a graduate student in Prof. Mervyn Bibb's group, and Tilly Crumpton-Taylor a student in Alison Smith's group in Metabolic Biology.

Microbes in Norwich Meeting - 27th November 2009
October 2009
The Microbes in Norwich Meeting is to take place on Friday 27th November, 9.45am - 5pm, at the John Innes Conference Centre. This full day event, presents a range of microbial research from across NRP and features a full length seminar from Prof Andy Johnston from BIO, UEA.
Registration for this event is required.

Speakers confirmed are:
Saccha Luccini (IFR) Transcriptional control of environmentally-responsive genes in Salmonella
Ane Sesma (JIC) Unravelling post-transcriptional networks essential for fungal plant infection
Andy Johnston (UEA) The remarkable diversity of the genes, the pathways and the microbes that make the smell of the seas
Tony Maxwell (JIC) Simocyclinone: a "double-headed" antibiotic with a novel mode of action
Nick LeBrun (UEA) Making and breaking disulfide bonds in the cell envelope of Gram-positive bacteria
Mike Peck (IFR) Clostridium botulinum: biology of a dangerous pathogen
Martin Howard (JIC) How are low copy number plasmids segregated inbacteria?
Matt Hutchings (UEA) Ant pharming: a search for novel antifungals in an unusual niche
Jonathan Jones (SL) Using obligate pathogen effectors to investigate host resistance mechanisms Register for this event.

JIC Runners-up in Young Microbiologist of the Year Competition
September 2009
Lucy Foulston and Jan Claesen, graduate students in Prof. Mervyn Bibb's group, were both recent contestants in the SGM's Young Microbiologist of the Year Competition in Edinburgh. They were chosen to present their research along with just four other finalists chosen from graduate students across the UK, an excellent accolade for the Molecular Microbiology department, and indeed Norwich. Their talks on antibiotic biosynthesis were both very well received, with Lucy claiming third place in the competition.

Honorary Position for Molecular Microbiology Department Head
September 2009
Mervyn Bibb, Head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology at JIC, was recently appointed Honorary Professor at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was presented with his award by Professor Li Huang, Director General of the Institute of Microbiology, in a recent visit to Beijing.

Recognition for Molecular Microbiology Staff Member
August 2009
Mark Buttner, a Project Leader in the Department of Molecular Microbiology, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in recognition of his record of scientific achievement.
Article from Advances: Summer 2009 (PDF file)

Institutes provide valuable experience for students
July 2009
Schoolchildren from across Norfolk have been gaining valuable work experience at the Norwich BioScience Institutes, giving them an idea of what it is like to work in at a leading science campus. The 14 and 15 year-olds have been working in a variety of different laboratory environments, looking at things such as analysing genome sequences, extracting DNA from bacteria, and crystallising proteins. The work experience scheme was coordinated by Sarah Tolland and Dave Hart.

Emma Sherwood, a post-graduate student working in Prof. Mervyn Bibb's group in the Molecular Microbiology Department at the John Innes Centre, said "I wanted to host a student because I know that I would have liked the opportunity to do work experience in a science lab when I was at school".

National Science and Engineering Week at the Norwich BioScience Institutes
March 2009
March 6th sees the start of The British Science Association's National Science and Engineering Week, and as part of this the John Innes Centre and the Institute of Food Research are hosting an interactive exhibition at The Forum in Norwich celebrating the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most famous work, On the Origin of Species. They will also be showcasing the work of their young scientists, giving the chance to hear about the latest work on topics such as antibiotics and how our gut protects us from invasion.

At the Showcase of Young Science on March 11th, students and their supervisors will describe their work to groups from Norwich schools as well as to a public audience. From the Molecular Microbiology department at the John Innes Centre, Jan Claesen, with Prof. Mervyn Bibb, is investigating cypemycin, a new, unusually modified antibiotic. By understanding how cypemycin is made they may be able to produce better derivatives, which will be crucial to countering the threat of antibiotic resistance.

ONE SYSTEM - two different relationships
January 2009
A JIC combination of biological and mathematical approaches has provided a novel explanation for the mechanisms of multi- functionality in signalling pathways.

Plants have symbiotic relationships with micro-organisms, which benefit both partners. Leguminous plants, such as peas and beans, form nodules on their roots which house rhizobia, bacteria which are able to "fix" nitrogen. However, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are very different to rhizobia, and produce very different reactions in the plants. Although both symbiotic relationships activate and use several of the same plant genes, it is only now that a JIC team, led by Giles Oldroyd and Allan Downie, have discovered how the one system can manage two different relationships.
Article from Advances: Winter 2008/9 | Original publication

Function and redundancy of chaplin cell surface proteins
January 2009
Working in collaboration with the Department of Biology and Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Canada, JIC scientists in Mark Buttner's Group have been examining the chaplins, a group of proteins which help streptomycetes attach to the surface of host plants. These 'hydrophobins' are highly surface-active and are capable of dramatically reducing surface tension at the colony air-water interface.
Article from Advances: Winter 2008/9 | Original publication

2008

New research identifies threat to human immune system's key defence mechanism
November 2008
A breakthrough by a team scientists, led by Dr. Matt Hutchings at the University of East Anglia and Dr. Nick Tucker in the lab of Prof. Ray Dixon, could pave the way for new drugs that protect the human immune system from bacterial disease. Working with colleagues at the John Innes Centre, the researchers have made a key discovery about how infectious bacteria succeed in invading the human body - despite being under attack by Nitric Oxide.

Second summer school in applied Molecular Microbiology builds on success of the first
September 2008
The second in the series of John Innes-Rudjer Bošković summer schools in Applied Molecular Microbiology was held at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 24 August - 1 September 2008 under the title "Microbial Secondary Metabolites: Genomes, Signals and Communities". Sir David Hopwood is a co-director of these summer schools and Professor Mervyn Bibb and Dr Govind Chandra are members of the teaching faculty.
The course was attended by 44 students from around the world with backgrounds ranging from chemistry, through biochemistry and molecular biology, bioinformatics and genetics to microbial ecology. The courses consist of lectures, computer workshops, poster sessions and small group discussions, with plenty of time for informal interactions. Their mission is to bring together graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from around the world with varying expertises to share information and opinions about microbial natural products. While much of the science discussed is at the cutting edge of research, an applied aim is to aid the imaginative discovery of new natural products to fight the increasing threat of antibiotic resistance in dangerous pathogens.
Student Photo (PDF file)
The next summer school will be held on August 21 - 29 2010.

Bacterial Networks (BacNet/08)
July 2008
BacNet/08 is an ESF-EMBO Symposium chaired by Prof. Mark Buttner and Prof. Urs Jenal, taking place 13-18 September 2008.
BacNet/08 will cover the mechanisms of information collection, integration and implementation in bacteria.

Energisation of nitrogen fixation
June 2008
In recent ground-breaking work Phil Poole has shown that the broad specificity amino acid transporters that are essential for productive nitrogen fixation in peas secrete alanine as part of a GABA-alanine-cycle operating in nodules. This bypasses a large part of the TCA-cycle and suggests that central metabolism may be completely changed in legume bacteroids. BBSRC, via responsive Mode Funding, are supporting the crucial research which will determine whether the cycles function alone or in combination to drive N2-fixation in Rhizobium-legume symbioses to underpin the global nitrogen cycle. The GABA-alanine-cycle may explain both how carbon and nitrogen are exchanged between the plant and bacterial symbionts, as well as provide a powerful chemical rationale for how reduction of nitrogen is achieved.
Article from Advances: Spring 2008 (PDF file)

Tapping into Thai resources
June 2008
Many of the drugs used in medicine today are derived from microbial natural products, and include antiinfectives, anti-tumour agents, immunosuppressants and cholesterol lowering agents. Thailand boasts a wealth of microbial diversity, yet many of these organisms have proven refractory to culture under laboratory conditions.
Funded by the British Council, JIC's Mervyn Bibb and Kasetsart University's Arinthip Thamchaipenet will now use metagenomic approaches to identify novel natural products with potential pharmaceutical application.
Article from Advances: Spring 2008 (PDF file)

Funding for superbug spin-out
June 2008
Procarta Biosystems, the company spun-out of the John Innes Centre by scientists Dr Michael McArthur and Prof. Mervyn Bibb in the Department of Molecular Microbiology in 2007 to develop a technology designed to defeat antibiotic-resistant superbugs, has received significant seed funding. The Rainbow Seed Fund and the Iceni Seedcorn Fund have provided £320,000 to allow Procarta to further develop its DNA decoy technique, which aims to restore antibiotic efficacy against resistant superbugs, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).
Click here for full JIC article

Bioscience:Biomillions - delivering impact from research
May 2008
JIC scientists, Professors Mervyn Bibb, Anthony Maxwell and Dr Jan Chojecki have contributed to Bioscience:Biomillions, an event organised by the BBSRC to demonstrate how the UK’s excellent bioscience research base is delivering substantial economic and social impact.

2007

Decoy makes sitting duck of superbugs
December 2007
A DNA-based therapy could slash the development time of new drugs to combat antibiotic resistant superbugs. Scientists Dr Michael McArthur and Professor Mervyn Bibb in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre, have proven that by taking a short stretch of DNA from a bacterium and delivering it with an existing antibiotic they can switch off antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria shed light on an important group of human proteins
November 2007
A collaboration between researchers in Switzerland, the UK and France has led to the solution of the first crystal structure of a member of the Rhesus protein family and thereby shed new light on a group of proteins of great importance in human transfusion medicine. The UK group was led by Professor Mike Merrick in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre.

Excellent start to summer schools in Applied Molecular Microbiology
August 2007
The first of an annual series of summer schools was held at the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences in Split, Croatia, 23-30 June 2007, covering "Microbial Genomics and Secondary Metabolites".

The schools are sponsored by the John Innes Centre and jointly co-directed by Professor Sir David Hopwood FRS and Dr. Julian E. Davies. The next summer school will be held on August 24 - September 1 2008 - click here for more details.