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School of Life Sciences

Professor David Roper

Professor David I roper

Professor of Biochemistry

Email: David.Roper@warwick.ac.uk 

Phone: 024 765 28369

Office: IBRB 2.25

Twitter: @davidroper2

Bluesky: davidroper2.bsky.social

Roper webpage

Research Clusters

Microbiology & Infectious Disease

Warwick Centres

Howard Dalton Centre for Mechanistic Enzymology

Warwick Antimicrobial Interdisciplinary Centre

Warwick Integrated Structural Biology Centre

Warwick Monash Associate

Vacancies and Opportunities

For PhD and postdoctoral opportunities, and interest in potential collaborations, please contact me at the above email address.

Research Interests

David Roper has a background in microbial biochemistry and was awarded an MRC Career Development Award fellowship at the University of York prior to taking an academic position at the University of Warwick, where he has now Professor of Biochemistry.

The Roper group is focused on the way in which pathogenic bacteria make their cell walls grow, how that is related to the ways in which they divide and reproduce and also the relationship of these processes to the discovery and resistance to antibiotics.

The Roper group uses interdisciplinary approaches from basic microbiology to molecular structure determination by X-ray crystallography, relating enzyme and protein mechanism to structure and function at a cellular level. Our research encompasses both fundamental and translation approaches including assay development and drug discovery approaches. In addition, his research group uses a number of approaches to reengineer pathway intermediates as chemical probes, substrates and inhibitors to allows novel insight to the biology underpinning these pathways which may lead to biotechnological exploration and exploitation. This includes the design and synthesis of chemical mimetic small molecule probes for mechanistic and translational studies.

  1. Peptidoglycan Biosynthesis: The majority of my work is concentrated on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underpin the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan pathogens with particular emphasis on the way in which cell shape is determined and controlled by RodA-PBP and the wider elongasome. This involved coordination of processes from inside to outside the cell membrane
  2. Bacteria Cell division: Cell division is the largest morphological change that any cell undergoes and has common elements in all forms of life. In bacteria this is controlled by a dynamic complex of proteins, many of which are located at or in the cell membrane making their study and analysis challenging. FtsZ and the proteins which interact are of key interest in that respect.
  3. New antibacterial drug discovery: Our studies on cell division and their linkage to peptidoglycan synthesis has an intimate connection to the targets of existing and potentially future antimicrobial drugs. We are investigating a number of these including the potential of the lipid II polymerization process as a target for such drugs.
  4. Molecular Mechanisms of Antibiotic resistance. We are interested in the molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, in relation to the biosynthesis of the cell wall including how Serine Threonine Kinases may modulate cell wall biosynthesis to adapt to antibiotic stress.

Impact

Antibiotics are the bedrock of modern healthcare. Whilst they obviously treat patients infected with life threatening microorganisms, they are also absolutely required in many other areas of medicine to prevent infection; from diabetes to cancer, from emergency surgery to joint replacement in later life. Without them, what we understand and expect from modern medicine would shrink to pre-WW2 levels. Whilst these wonder drugs have changed modern medicine, successive generations have not used them wisely. This has lead to the spread of resistance genes and development of resistance mechanisms in bacteria leading to increasing instances of infections that are difficult to treat in the clinic and community. We call this Antimicrobial resistance: AMR. Simply put, the adaptation of microorganisms to environmental stress, evolution in action.

So how do we address this and what is going on at Warwick in this area? The scientific community is in general agreement that there are certain areas of bacterial metabolism that are their “Achilles heel” and still good areas for antimicrobial drug action and discovery. One of these is the way in which bacteria make their cell walls, the target for lots of existing drugs like penicillin and vancomycin for example. The drugs based on penicillin are successful as they target multiple different versions of the same vital protein activity in the same bacterium simultaneously. As a result the bacteria cannot compensate for this loss of multiple protein function by simple mutation. Whilst some bacteria have developed the ability to degrade the penicillin drug before it reaches its target for example, the target itself still remains vulnerable.

At Warwick we have developed tools and technology to understand these protein targets in a totally new way. Using these tools, we are developing the knowledge base that will help develop the next generation of antimicrobial drugs that hit these old targets in new ways. In addition, we are also conducting research on the ways in which bacteria become resistance to existing antimicrobial drugs. By understanding these processes at a molecular level we will learn how to target these resistance mechanism themselves, so that the old drugs can still be used.

In doing so, we learn how the bacteria adapt in the first place so that future antimicrobial drugs may be used more efficaciously in the future. This is a particularly important point, since in one sense drug resistance is inevitable, but if we learn the lessons of the past we may use old and new drugs more sensibly and effectively, leading to a more healthy and long lived future.

Outreach

During the centenary of the MRC I was invited to take part in a video presentation celebrating 100 years of life changing discoveries, discussing the discovery of penicillin by Flemming and what antibiotic resistance means in a modern world.

In early 2025 I was invited to take part in a webinar for the Protein Society that highlights some of our work in an international context:

I am the co organiser of an International biannual conference all aspects fof the bacterial cell wall called the Great Wall Symposium that has been running since 2011. Every 2 years nearly 200 scientists from across the world attend to discuss the latest developments and advances in our understanding of the bacterial cell wall and how those advances may link to the next generation of antibiotic discoveries.

Teaching

I teach Biochemistry to 2nd and 3rd year students as well as providing laboratory projects for Mbio and PhD students in our BBSRC MIBTP and MRC DTP cohorts. Click on this link for some thoughts on what biochemistry teaching and research means to me.

People

From Left to right

Tom Gould, Selina Kinxhi, Holly Gregory, Dr Jeff Cheng, Charis Thompson, Kate Willett, Dr Nic Briggs, Dr Fran Gillett, Dan Karadzas, Dr Stephano Camiaone.

Roper Group In January 2024
  • 2018 - Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick
  • 2021-2024 Director of Research, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick
  • 2020 - 2021. Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University New York, 2020 visiting Schaefer Research Scholar
  • 2018 - 2019. Academy of Medical Sciences, Hamied Foundation UK-India AMR Visiting Professorships
  • 2014 - 2017. Reader in Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick
  • 2015 - 2016. BBSRC-RSE Enterprise Fellow, Antimicrobial Discovery Solutions Ltd.
  • 2006 - 2014. Associate Professor of Structural Biology, Biological Sciences, University of Warwick.
  • 2001 - 2006. Lecturer in Structural Biology, Biological Sciences, University of Warwick
  • 1996 - 2001. MRC Career Development Fellow, Dept Chemistry, University of York.
  • 1990 - 1996. SERC & BBSRC Post-doctoral Fellow, Dept Chemistry, University of York.
  • 1987-1990. Ph.D. Biochemistry, Dept Biochemistry, University of Leicester.
  • 1983-1997. B.Sc. Biochemistry, Dept Biochemistry, University College Cardiff.

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