Author: karreradjoko

We are very excited to receive a Durham University Seedcorn Award. This funding will help us establish a new collaboration with Dr Denis Patterson and Dr Andrew Krause, both at Durham Mathematical Sciences. This work will fund preliminary development of a novel theory in mathematical ecology that can explain how metal ions influence coexistence of bacteria in complex bacterial communities.

Congratulations to Dr (de facto) Jack Bolton for passing his PhD viva. Many thanks to examiners Prof. Paul Denny (Durham) and Prof. James Moir (York). The group did a mini celebration on Zoom. Jack will soon start as a Lecturer at Sterling College, Kansas, USA. We wish him all the best in this exciting next step of his career.

We are delighted to welcome Oscar Goodwill to the group. Oscar is a Level 2 Biosciences undegraduate student. He will spend 6 weeks with us, funded by a Durham Biosciences Summer Studentship, to study the Cu-dependent nitrite reductase from pathogenic Neisseria.

Many congratulations to Jack Bolton for submitting his PhD thesis. We went to celebrate with hot chocolate and tea. We wish him all the best in his new endeavours in the USA!

Many congratulations to ex-group members Jin, Louisa, Sam, and current group member Jack for their new paper, entitled “Mis-regulation of Zn and Mn homeostasis is a key phenotype of Cu stress in Streptococcus pyogenes“, which is now on-line!

A warm welcome to Safa Chogule and Archie Howell, new PhD students in the group. Safa is funded by a BBSRC Newcastle-Liverpool-Durham DTP Scholarship while Archie is funded by a Durham University Janet Stevens Scholarship. Both of them will study the interactions between metal ions, salivary histatins, and oral microbes.

Gemma Luscombe joined us as a Level 4 Chemistry-Biology MSci student, co-supervised by Prof. Steven Cobb (Durham Chemistry). Gemma will contribute to the AccA project. Welcome!

William Earl arrived in the lab as a Masters of Science (Research) student in the lab. He will study the intracellular activation of a Cu-dependent nitrite reductase in pathogenic Neisseria.

Just accepted in FEBS J: Structural and biochemical characterisation of the N-carbamoyl-β-alanine amidohydrolase from Rhizobium radiobacter MDC 8606. Many thanks to our collaborators in Armenia, Germany, and Newcastle for the opportunity to contribute to this work!

Our invited commentary about the control of nutrient metal availability during host-microbe interactions is now on-line! Click the image below to access the article.