Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (29)

Dendrimer mediated clustering of bacteria: improved aggregation and evaluation of bacterial response and viability (2016)
Journal Article
Leire, E., Amaral, S. P., Louzao, I., Winzer, K., Alexander, C., Fernandez-Megia, E., & Fernandez-Trillo, F. (2016). Dendrimer mediated clustering of bacteria: improved aggregation and evaluation of bacterial response and viability. Biomaterials Science, 4(6), https://doi.org/10.1039/C6BM00079G

Here, we evaluate how cationic gallic acid-triethylene glycol (GATG) dendrimers interact with bacteria and their potential to develop new antimicrobials. We demonstrate that GATG dendrimers functionalised with primary amines in their periphery can in... Read More about Dendrimer mediated clustering of bacteria: improved aggregation and evaluation of bacterial response and viability.

Cationic polymer mediated bacterial clustering: cell-adhesive properties of homo- and copolymers (2015)
Journal Article
Louzao, I., Sui, C., Winzer, K., Fernandez-Trillo, F., & Alexander, C. (2015). Cationic polymer mediated bacterial clustering: cell-adhesive properties of homo- and copolymers. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, 95, 47-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpb.2015.05.026

New anti-infective materials are needed urgently as alternatives to conventional biocides. It has recently been established that polymer materials designed to bind to the surface of bacteria can induce the formation of cell clusters which enhance the... Read More about Cationic polymer mediated bacterial clustering: cell-adhesive properties of homo- and copolymers.

Bacteria clustering by polymers induces the expression of quorum sense controlled phenotypes (2013)
Journal Article
Lui, L. T., Xue, X., Sui, C., Brown, A., Pritchard, D. I., Halliday, N., …Alexander, C. (2013). Bacteria clustering by polymers induces the expression of quorum sense controlled phenotypes. Nature Chemistry, 5(12), https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1793

Bacteria deploy a range of chemistries to regulate their behaviour and respond to their environment. Quorum sensing is one mean by which bacteria use chemical reactions to modulate pre-infection behaviour such as surface attachment. Polymers that can... Read More about Bacteria clustering by polymers induces the expression of quorum sense controlled phenotypes.

Secretion and assembly of functional mini-cellulosomes from synthetic chromosomal operons in Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 (2013)
Journal Article
Kovacs, K., Willson, B. J., Schwarz, K., Heap, J. T., Jackson, A., Bolam, D. N., …Minton, N. P. (2013). Secretion and assembly of functional mini-cellulosomes from synthetic chromosomal operons in Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 6(117), https://doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-6-117

BACKGROUND: Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) is reliant on the simultaneous enzyme production, saccharification of biomass, and fermentation of released sugars into valuable products such as butanol. Clostridial species that produce butanol are, h... Read More about Secretion and assembly of functional mini-cellulosomes from synthetic chromosomal operons in Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824.

The putative influence of the agr operon upon survival mechanisms used by Clostridium acetobutylicum (2013)
Journal Article
Jabbari, S., Steiner, E., Heap, J. T., Winzer, K., Minton, N. P., & King, J. R. (2013). The putative influence of the agr operon upon survival mechanisms used by Clostridium acetobutylicum. Mathematical Biosciences, 243(2), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mbs.2013.03.005

The bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum produces acids as an energy-yielding process during exponential growth. An acidic environment, however, is toxic to the cells and two survival mechanisms are in place to prevent them from dying. Firstly, durin... Read More about The putative influence of the agr operon upon survival mechanisms used by Clostridium acetobutylicum.

Regulation of neurotoxin production and sporulation by a putative agrBD signaling system in proteolytic Clostridium botulinum (2010)
Journal Article

A significant number of genome sequences of Clostridium botulinum and related species have now been determined. In silico analysis of these data revealed the presence of two distinct agr loci (agr-1 and agr-2) in all group I strains, each encoding pu... Read More about Regulation of neurotoxin production and sporulation by a putative agrBD signaling system in proteolytic Clostridium botulinum.

Differential Recognition of Staphylococcus aureus Quorum-Sensing Signals Depends on Both Extracellular Loops 1 and 2 of the Transmembrane Sensor AgrC (2008)
Journal Article

Virulence in Staphylococcus aureus is regulated via agr-dependent quorum sensing in which an autoinducing peptide (AIP) activates AgrC, a histidine protein kinase. AIPs are usually thiolactones containing seven to nine amino acid residues in which th... Read More about Differential Recognition of Staphylococcus aureus Quorum-Sensing Signals Depends on Both Extracellular Loops 1 and 2 of the Transmembrane Sensor AgrC.

Density-dependent fitness benefits in quorum-sensing bacterial populations
Journal Article
Darch, S. E., West, S. A., Winzer, K., & Diggle, S. P. Density-dependent fitness benefits in quorum-sensing bacterial populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(21), https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118131109

It has been argued that bacteria communicate using small diffusible signal molecules to coordinate, among other things, the production of factors that are secreted outside of the cells in a process known as quorum sensing (QS). The underlying assumpt... Read More about Density-dependent fitness benefits in quorum-sensing bacterial populations.