One of the newest avenues of research for the Waterfield group, we are interested in exploiting natural systems of bacteria for novel drug delivery platforms and to better understand the mechanisms of various toxin systems. To do this, we routinely use advanced molecular biology and genomics techniques to rationally alter and edit natural systems such that they can perform tasks of interest to us.

More to come....watch this space!

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Exploiting natural and semi-synthetic toxin delivery systems for drug transport

The Gram negative bacterium Photorhabdus produces a bewildering array of secondary metabolites, natural products, and both simple and complex toxin systems/complexes. Research in to turning these in to useful and informative therapeutically active compounds is drawing on techniques from both synthetic biology and collaborations with organic/polymer chemists.