Rebecca Diss

Rebecca is interested in microorganisms and her PhD project focusses on the regulatory mechanisms of cell division in the Actinobacterium M. smegmatis.

Actinobacteria are less well studied than model organisms such as E. coli and many of the proteins involved in regulation of cell division in Actinobacteria are yet to characterised. M. smegmatis is also closely related to M. tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB, and understanding how cell division is regulated in these organisms could have future implications in medicine.