Staff Profile

Alistair carried out his PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Gurdyal Besra at Newcastle University (2000-2004). His work primarily focused on fatty acid biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative organism of TB. He continued to work with Prof. Besra as a BBSRC funded Post-Doctoral Research associate at University of Birmingham, UK (2004-2009). His work concentrated on identification and characterisation of novel drug targets in M. tuberculosis through crystallographic and biochemical analysis. Alistair joined Northumbria University in 2009 after accepting a lectureship in microbiology. He joined Durham University in 2015 and was part of the successful Pharmacy accreditation team. The transfer of the programme in 2017 saw Alistair return to Newcastle University.

Predominately Alistair’s research interests focus on M. tuberculosis via a variety of different avenues with specialities in biochemical and molecular characterisation of key metabolic pathways. His work involves the creation of null-mutants in none pathogenic Mycobacterial species as well as production of recombinant protein for study in biochemically relevant assays. Alistair’s main interests are in the field of lipid synthesis and degradation with particular reference to cell wall biosynthesis and architecture.

• Articles

  • Brown AK, Aljohani AKB, Alsalem FMA, Broadhead JL, Gill JH, Lu Y, Sellars JD. Identification of Substituted Amino Acid Hydrazides as Novel Anti-Tubercular Agents, Using a Scaffold Hopping Approach. Molecules 2020, 25(10), 2387-2411.
  • Brown AK, Aljohani AKB, Gill JH, Steel PG, Sellars JD. Identification of novel benzoxa-[2,1,3]-diazole substituted amino acid hydrazides as potential anti-tubercular agents. Molecules 2019, 24(4), 811.
  • Cox JAG, Taylor RC, Brown AK, Attoe S, Besra GS, Futterer k. Crystal structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis FadB2 implicated in mycobacterial b-oxidation. Acta Crystallographica Section D Structural Biology 2019, 75(1), 101-108.
  • Scalacci N, Brown AK, Pavan FR, Ribeiro CM, Manetti F, Bhakta S, Maitra A, Smith DL, Petricci E, Castagnolo D. Synthesis and SAR evaluation of novel thioridazine derivatives active against drug-resistant tuberculosis. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2017, 127, 147-158.
  • Holt GS, Lodge JK, McCarthy AJ, Graham AK, Young G, Bridge SH, Brown AK, Veses-Garcia M, Lanyon CV, Sails A, Allison HE, Smith DL. Shigatoxin encoding Bacteriophage ɸ24β modulates bacterial metabolism to raise antimicrobial tolerance. Scientific Reports 2017, 7, 40424.
  • Bhakta S, Scalacci N, Maitra A, Brown AK, Dasugari S, Evangelopoulos D, McHugh TD, Mortazavi PN, Twist A, Petricci E, Manetti F, Castagnolo D. Design and Synthesis of 1-((1,5-Bis(4-chlorophenyl)-2-methyl-1H-pyrrol-3-yl)methyl)-4-methylpiperazine (BM212) and N-Adamantan-2-yl-N′-((E)-3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dienyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (SQ109) Pyrrole Hybrid Derivatives: Discovery of Potent Antitubercular Agents Effective against Multidrug-Resistant Mycobacteria. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 59(6), 2780-2793.
  • Winther SK, Brodersen DE, Brown AK, Gerdes K. VapC20 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Cleaves the Sarcin Ricin Loop of 23S rRNA. Nature Communications 2013, 2796, 1-9.
  • Brown AK, Sridharan S, Kremer L, Lindenberg S, Dover LG, Sacchettini JC, Besra GS. Probing the mechanism of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis β-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthase III mtFabH: Factors influencing catalysis and substrate specificity. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2005, 280(37), 32539-32547.
  • Kremer L, Dover LG, Carrere S, Nampoothiri KM, Lesjean S, Brown AK, Brennan PJ, Minnikin DE, Locht C, Besra GS. Mycolic acid biosynthesis and enzymic characterization of the beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase A-condensing enzyme from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Biochemical Journal 2002, 364, 423-430.