Staff Profile

It is widely accepted that ‘omics methodologies have accelerated our understanding of life at molecular, cellular and organism levels. Our research combines ‘omics methods to link biology (genes) to chemistry (antibiotics). We apply this approach to understand the ‘chemical language’ of microorganisms, and what influences it. This assessment of chemical space across biological parameters can enable informed biodiscovery of new antibiotics. You can find out more about the Duncan lab at: www.medicinesfromthesea.com. 

Kate moved to the University of Newcastle (UK) in 2024 and leads a team focussed on microbial metabolomics and antibiotic discovery. Prior to this Kate completed a Tenure-Track Chancellor’s Fellowship at the University of Strathclyde (2016-2020) and was awarded full tenure to associate professor (2020-2023). Prior to starting her group, Kate completed two Postdoctoral Fellowships at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (California) in Marine Biomedicine and at The Scottish Marine Institute in Marine Biotechnology, a PhD in Biomedical Science (Canada) and a 5-year Masters in Chemistry (Aberdeen, Scotland) with International Placement (Florida). Kate is an advocate for community approaches to data sharing (ActinoBase, NPAtlas, MI-BiG, GNPS etc) and equality in STEMM.

• Articles

  • Parra J, Jarmusch SA, Duncan KR. Multi-omics analysis of antagonistic interactions among free-living Pseudonocardia from diverse ecosystems. Environmental Microbiology 2024, 26(6), e16635.
  • Hughes AH, Duncan KR. Eliciting specialized metabolites from marine microalgae using abiotic stress. Applied Phycology 2024, 5(1), 1-11.
  • Domingo-Roca, R, Lasserre, P, Riordan, L, Macdonald, AR, Dobrea, A, Duncan, KR, Hannah, S, Murphy, M, Hoskisson, PA, Corrigan, DK. Rapid assessment of antibiotic susceptibility using a fully 3D-printed impedance- based biosensor. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2023, 13.
  • Terlouw BR, Blin K, Navarro-Muñoz JC, Avalon NE, Chevrette MG, Egbert S, Lee S, Meijer D, Recchia MJJ, Reitz ZL, van Santen JA, Selem-Mojica N, Tørring T, Zaroubi L, Alanjary M, Aleti G, Aguilar C, Al-Salihi SAA, Augustijn HE, Avelar-Rivas JA, Avitia-Domínguez LA, Barona-Gómez F, Bernaldo-Agüero J, Bielinski VA, Biermann F, Booth TJ, Carrion Bravo VJ, Castelo-Branco R, Chagas FO, Cruz-Morales P, Du C, Duncan KR, Gavriilidou A, Gayrard D, Gutiérrez-García K, Haslinger K, Helfrich EJN, van der Hooft JJJ, Jati AP, Kalkreuter E, Kalyvas N, Kang KB, Kautsar S, Kim W, Kunjapur AM, Li Y-X, Lin G-M, Loureiro C, Louwen JJR, Louwen NLL, Lund G, Parra J, Philmus B, Pourmohsenin B, Pronk LJU, Rego A, Rex DAB, Robinson S, Rosas-Becerra LR, Roxborough ET, Schorn MA, Scobie DJ, Singh KS, Sokolova N, Tang X, Udwary D, Vigneshwari A, Vind K, Vromans SPJM, Waschulin V, Williams SE, Winter JM, Witte TE, Xie H, Yang D, Yu J, Zdouc M, Zhong Z, Collemare J, Linington RG, Weber T, Medema MH. MIBiG 3.0: a community-driven effort to annotate experimentally validated biosynthetic gene clusters. Nucleic Acids Research 2023, 51(D1), D603-D610.
  • Van Santen, JA, Poyton, EF, Iskakova, D, McMann, E, Alsup, TA, Clark, TN, Fergusson, CH, Fewer, DP, Hughes, AH, McCadden, CA, Parra, J, Soldatou, S, Rudolf, JD, Janssen, EML, Duncan, KR, Linington, RG. The Natural Products Atlas 2.0: a Database of Microbially-derived Natural Products. 2022, 50(D1), D1317–D1323.
  • Hutchings, MI, Duncan, KR. Overcoming drug resistance, the natural way. 2022, 30(3), 273-274.
  • Dunphy, RD, Lassere, P, Riordan, L, Duncan, KR, McCormick, C, Murray,P, Corrigan, D. Combining Hyperspectral Imaging and Electrochemical Sensing for Detection of Pseudonomcas aeruginosa through Pyocyanin Production. RSC Sens. Diagn 2022, 1, 841-850.
  • Eldjárn GH, Ramsay A, van der Hooft JJJ, Duncan KR, Soldatou S, Rousu J, Daly R, Wandy J, Rogers S. Ranking microbial metabolomic and genomic links in the NPLinker framework using complementary scoring functions. PLoS Computational Biology 2021, 17(5), e1008920.
  • Hughes, AH, Magot, F, Tawfike, A, Rad-Menéndez, C, Thomas, N, Young, LC, Stucchi, L, Carettoni, D, Stanley, MS, Edrada-Ebel, R, Duncan, KR. Exploring the Chemical Space of Macro- and Micro-algae Using Comparative Metabolomics. Microorganisms 2021, 9(2).
  • Soldatou, S, Eldjarn, GH, Ramsey, A, van der Hooft, JJJ, Hughes, AH, Rogers, S, Duncan, KR. Comparative Metabologenomics Analysis of Polar actinomycetes. 2021, 19(2).
  • Parra, J, Soldatou, S, Rooney, LM, Duncan, KR. Psudonocardia abyssalis sp. nov. and Pseudonocardia oceani sp. nov. Two Novel actinomycetes Isolated from the Deep Southern Ocean. IJSEM 2021, 71(9).

• Reviews

  • Mullowney, MW, Duncan, KR, Elsayed, SS, Garg, N, van der Hooft, JJJ, Martin, NI, Meijer, D, Terlouw, BR, Biermann, F, Blin, K, Durairaj, J, Gorostiola González, M, Helfrich, EJN, Huber, F, Leopold-Messer, S, Rajan, K, de Rond, T, van Santen, JA, Sorokina, M, Balunas, MJ, Beniddir, MA, van Bergeijk, DA, Carroll, LM, Clark, CM, Clevert, D, Dejong, CA, Du, C, Ferrinho, S, Grisoni, F, Hofstetter, A, Jespers, W, Kalinina, OV, Kautsar, SA, Kim, H, Leao, TF, Masschelein, J, Rees, ER, Reher, R, Reker, D, Schwaller, P, Segler, M, Skinnider, MA, Walker, AS, Willighagen, EL, Zdrazil, B, Ziemert, N, Goss, RJM, Guyomard, P, Volkamer, A, Gerwick, WH, Kim, HU, Müller, R, van Wezel, GP, van Westen, GJP, Hirsch, AKH, Linington, RG, Robinson, SL, Medema, MH. Artificial intelligence for natural product drug discovery. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2023, 22(11), 895-916.
  • Parra J, Beaton A, Seipke RF, Wilkinson B, Hutchings MI, Duncan KR. Antibiotics from rare actinomycetes, beyond the genus Streptomyces. Current Opinion in Microbiology 2023, 76, 102385.
  • Feeney MA, Newitt JT, Addington E, Algora-Gallardo L, Allan C, Balis L, Birke AS, Castaño-Espriu L, Charkoudian LK, Devine R, Gayrard D, Hamilton J, Hennrich O, Hoskisson PA, Keith-Baker M, Klein JG, Kruasuwan W, Mark DR, Mast Y, McHugh RE, McLean TC, Mohit E, Munnoch JT, Murray J, Noble K, Otani H, Parra J, Pereira CF, Perry L, Pintor-Escobar L, Pritchard L, Prudence SMM, Russell AH, Schniete JK, Seipke RF, Sélem-Mojica N, Undabarrena A, Vind K, van Wezel GP, Wilkinson B, Worsley SF, Duncan KR, Fernández-Martínez LT, Hutchings MI. ActinoBase: tools and protocols for researchers working on Streptomyces and other filamentous actinobacteria. Microbial Genomics 2022, 8(7), 000824.