I studied biochemistry at the University of York at undergraduate level, and I am now studying for a PhD at the University of Sheffield.
My research interests are the molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. This includes understanding how pathogens are able to infect targets, survive, and cause disease, and identifying potential ways to fight them.
My research project is investigating a survival mechanism used by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a bacterial pathogen that causes the infectious disease melioidosis. B. pseudomallei uses iron-chelating compounds called siderophores to scavenge extracellular iron; this provides the bacteria with an essential nutrient that enables survival during infection in a nutrient-scarce environment. The usage of one such siderophore, malleobactin, is transcriptionally controlled by the extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factor MbaS. How MbaS activity is regulated is unclear, and the protein may contain an on-board iron sensor that directly binds iron in the form of an iron-sulphur cluster through cysteine residues in an extended C-terminal domain. I am investigating the ability of MbaS to transcribe its target malleobactin-associated genes, and the influence of putative key cysteine residues upon this activity, using the closely-related model species Burkholderia thailandensis and a variety of molecular biology and microbiology techniques.