Staff Profile

Vacancies

We are always open to informal enquiries for PhD or Post-Doctoral positions in this lab, and often find a way to fund good candidates. Please feel free to email me if you are interested: manuel.banzhaf@newcastle.ac.uk

Education and Training

2023 - present - UKRI Future Leader Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Systems Microbiology, Bioscience Institute, Newcastle University

2022-2023 - URKI Future Leader Fellow, School of Biosciences, Birmingham University

2018-2022 - Birmingham Fellow, School of Biosciences, Birmingham University

2012-2018 - Postdoctoral Fellow, European Molecular Biology Laboratories (Heidelberg) with Nassos Typas

2010-2012 - EMBO Fellow, Harvard University with Tomas Kirchhausen

2007-2010 - PhD student, Newcastle University with Waldemar Vollmer

2002-2007 - Diploma student, University of Tübingen with Waldemar Vollmer

Distinctions and Awards

2022 - UKRI Future Leader Fellowship

2018 - Birmingham Fellowship

2010 - EMBO LTF Fellowship

2007 - BBSRC PhD Studentship

Funding

Work in the lab is supported by the UKRI, BBSRC, MRC, Wellcome and Newcastle University.

Key words

Gram-negative cell envelope; Systems Biology; Antimicrobial resistance; Biofilms; High-throughput screening;

Research areas

Chemical genetic screens

Bacterial chemical-genetic screens can quantify the impact of each gene on the fitness of the organism subjected to a large number of chemical/environmental perturbations. Chemical-genetics enables the discovery of gene function and facilitates the mapping of pathways, often leading to the identification of drug primary/secondary targets. Our laboratory develops chemical genetic screens and other systems microbiological approaches for important human pathogens.

Gram-negative envelope biology

Gram-negative bacteria are difficult to eradicate as their cell envelope protects them against environmental insults, such as food preservatives and antimicrobials. Gram-negative bacterial cell envelopes hold special interest because of their dual property as both structural elements, and permeability barriers. The permeability barrier is conferred by the asymmetric lipid bilayer referred to as the outer membrane, which restricts cell entry for toxic compounds, including many antibiotics. Understanding which genes within the bacteria are playing a role in maintaining this envelope is fundamental to understanding its biology. Despite this, genome-wide screens to assay envelope biogenesis in Gram-negative bacteria are largely missing. Our laboratory develops high-throughput approach to systematically assay envelope integrity and envelope biogenesis for Gram-negative human pathogens.

Undergraduate Teaching

Supervision of undergraduate research projects

Postgraduate Teaching

Supervision of masters and PhD research projects