Using systems microbiology to combat infectious disease
Speaker: Manuel Banzhaf (Newscastle University)
Host: Lisa Maier (CMFI)
Date & Time: 18.01.2024 | 12:30 – 14:00 Uhr
Location: Hörsaal 3M07, GUZ
Abstract:
At this research seminar I will present how we can use arrayed and pooled bacterial libraries to systematically dissect complex bacterial processes such as antimicrobial resistance or the bacterial cell envelope biogenesis. The first part of the talk will be very conceptual explaining you the basis of chemical genomics and other phenotyping approaches we routinely employ in the Banzhaf lab with the goal to showcase how those methods may help you to answer your specific research questions. In the second part of my talk I will present what we learned from profiling two P. aeruginosa single-gene deletion libraries (in the clinically relevant strains, PA01 and PA14) in over 200 chemical and environmental stresses and how we currently expand this platform to other single deletion libraries of bacterial pathogens (K. pneumoniae, Vibrio cholerae, Mycobacterium bovis BCG, etc.) and libraries of sequenced clinical isolates.
About Manuel Banzhaf:
Manuel Banzhaf works at the Bioscience Institute at the Newcastle University. His research explores the use of high-throughput approaches to phenotype pathogens. Those methods allow him to study a) the bacterial cell envelope, a cellular compartment harbouring many determinants and processes related to antimicrobial resistance; b) how differences in DNA sequence result in phenotypic variability of pathogens to improve antimicrobial treatment regimens.