Danny Ward

Danny is researching virulence and pathogenicity of plant-infecting and human-infecting bacteria.

Danny’s research is focused on virulence mediated by the type-III secretion system within Pseudomonas bacteria.

The type-III secretion system is a needle-like nanomachine complex which delivers effector proteins from the bacterial cell in to their target host.

Effector proteins promote bacterial colonisation and virulence. Cyclic-di-GMP is a nucleotide signalling molecule well documented to impact a variety of cellular functions.

This work looks at the interplay between cyclic-di-GMP, the type-III secretion system, effector proteins and bacterial virulence to understand potential regulation mechanisms that may be present.

This research is important as bacterial disease poses a large threat to food security, human health and the global economy. This is exacerbated by antimicrobial resistance for which certain species of Pseudomonas are particularly susceptible to.

By understanding how bacteria are able to infect their hosts in greater detail, this will ultimately better arm us for future research efforts regarding the development of new potential bacterial control mechanisms.