Who We Are

The lab has two major research areas: Bacterial Evolution and Bacterial Surface Polysaccharides.

BSPs are very common and are enormously diverse, even among strains within a species. The most common BSPs are the highly variable O antigens of Gram negative bacteria, and capsules that are more generally distributed. O antigens commonly cover the surface, apart from gaps for proteins or flagella, and capsules often cover the O antigen layer or the peptidoglycan layer of Gram positive bacteria. These BSPs interact with other bacteria or surfaces and are used by bacteriophages, amoeba and animal macrophages to identify bacteria to kill andor eat, and by immune systems as antigen targets. They are enormously important for bacterial survival and in pathogenesis.