Prokaryotic cell surfaces

My laboratory uses electron tomography, combined with several structural and cell biology techniques, to study cell surfaces of prokaryotes at the atomic level.

Surface molecules mediate all cellular interactions with the environment and play important roles in cell adhesion, biofilm formation and in the stabilisation of microbiomes.

Our research pushes the boundaries of cellular structural biology, with technical developments aimed at identifying molecules on cell surfaces, and resolving their high-resolution details on prokaryotic cells.

While structural biology of many cell surface molecules reveals fundamental information about bacteria and archaea, or work has clear biomedical relevance, since surface molecules allow pathogenic bacteria such as P. aeruginosa to evade antibiotics and infect humans by forming biofilms.