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SUMMARY:Bad neighbours\, antisocial  behaviour\, and party animals\;  the 
 secret life of microbes
DTSTART:20261020T121500
DTEND:20261020T131500
DTSTAMP:20261001T142348Z
UID:059b5f51927d088e4725358858e7a8bf7d6652435dad4ea345f0050e
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Martin Welch\, University of Cambridge\, Department of Bioche
 mistry\nIn this talk\, I'll take a look at three "microbial vignettes". In
  the first\, I'll examine how the presence of co-habiting microbes profoun
 dly affects the biology of a human pathogen\, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This
  is important\, because in diseased human airways - where P. aeruginosa is
  an unwelcome\, but common inhabitant - the pathogen invariably shares the
  infection site with a variety of other microbes. It turns out that these 
 microbial neighbours interact with one another and that these interactions
  are perturbed by the loss of a quorum sensing "master regulator" (LasR) i
 n P. aeruginosa. In the second "short"\, I'll talk about how we are now ab
 le to manipulate the rate of evolution of the organism\, either by "steppi
 ng on the gas pedal" or by "slamming on the brakes". The ability to do thi
 s\, in an experimentally-controlled manner\, is allowing us to access some
  novel evolutionary trajectories\, and to address some truly fundamental b
 iological questions. Finally\, I'll take a fresh look at bacterial biofilm
 s and in particular\, examine whether the exopolysaccharide "bioglue" that
  holds these structures together might have additional - possibly more imp
 ortant roles. It turns out that it does\, and that the exopolysaccharide m
 atrix acts as a "net" to selectively sequester secreted proteins\, potenti
 ally conferring novel functionalities on the biofilm.\n\nBrief Speaker Bio
 . \nAfter reading for a degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxfor
 d\, Martin completed a PhD on bacterial chemotaxis at the Weizmann Institu
 te of Science (Israel)\, where he was awarded the Wolf Prize for his contr
 ibutions to the field. Leavuing Israel with a PhD and a [German] wife\, he
  then moved to Toulouse (supported by a long-term EMBO fellowship) where h
 e learned the dark art of x-ray crystallography and solved the structure o
 f a signaling complex involved in bacterial chemotaxis. He then moved back
  to the UK to take up a post-doctoral position at the University of Cambri
 dge working on quorum sensing in the fascinating plant pathogen\, Pectobac
 terium atrosepticum. There\, he developed skills in molecular genetics and
  demonstrated (for the first time) that quorum sensing molecules bind dire
 ctly to their cognate LuxR homologs in a range of bacteria. This advance a
 llowed him to secure a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to sta
 rt his own group - where he learned the hard way that prospective students
  don't like any project with the word "plant" in\, and when offered projec
 ts on the plant pathogen versus a mammalian pathogen\, always went for the
  latter. Since around 2000\, his team's focus has been on understanding be
 tter the link between metabolism and virulence in the opportunistic human 
 pathogen\, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He is now Professor of Microbial Physio
 logy and Metabolism at the University of Cambridge.
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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