Staff Profile

Introduction

Professor J Grant Burgess is a marine microbiologist who completed his first degree in biotechnology at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London (now Kings College). After a PhD in molecular biology from Imperial College under Neil Hunter (FRS), he worked in Tokyo for five years in the field of Marine Biotechnology. He then took up a lectureship in Marine Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University where he worked in the area of marine microbial ecology investigating microbial antagonism and production of antibiotics from marine bacteria. In October 2005 he took up his current post at Newcastle where he works on marine microbial biofilms and applied marine microbiology.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology, Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, 1986
• PhD, Molecular Biology, Imperial College, University of London, 1990

Previous Positions

• 1994 - 2005   Reader in Marine Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
• 1993 - 1994   Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, Tokyo Univ. of Agriculture and Technology
• 1991 - 1992   Research Fellow, Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Tokyo Univ. Agric. and Technology
• 2005 - 2011   Director, Dove Marine Laboratory

Honours and Awards

• Winner of the John Logie Baird Award for Innovation in 2000, for research and development of novel environmentally friendly antifouling paints.
• Co-founder of the Journal of Marine Biotechnology, the first journal in this field, in 1993 and negotiator of its merger with the later US journal Marine Molecular Biology and Biotechnology to create the journal “Marine Botechnology”. This journal won the award for Best New Academic Journal at the American Publishers Awards in 2000.
• Carnegie Trust Centenary Visiting Professor in Marine Biotechnology.
• Runner Up. Medical Futures award 2011 for project on use of nucleases in oral health
• Innovator of the Year award, 2014
• BioNow Best biomedical project of the year, 2014

Undergraduate Teaching

I contribute to the following undergraduate modules;

• MST1101:Marine Biology
• MST1104:Marine Study Skills
• MST2101:Marine Ecology
• MST2104:Marine Research and Employability Skills
• MST2105:Marine Practical Skills
• MST3101:Advanced Marine Biology

• MST3104:Research Project: Marine Biology
• MST3105:Research Project: Marine Zoology
• MST3106:Research Project: Marine Biology and Oceanography

Postdoc position now available:

The vacancy is now live externally and will close at midnight 2^nd September 2019.

The vacancy can be found at the following link :https://bit.ly/2T5iu39

Research Interests

Marine Biotechnology

Novel bioactive compounds from marine bacteria, chemical defense in marine microbes, antifouling compounds from marine bacteria, microbiology of deep sea sediments, sponge microbiology. Regulation of biofilm production and biofilm dispersal in marine Bacillus licheniformis, and more recently marine fermentation and bioprocessing / biotechnological applications of microbial nucleases.

Current Work

Understanding biofilm dispersal in marine microbial biofilms

Postgraduate Supervision (Newcastle University)

• Tristano Bachetti De Gregoris (PhD awarded Summer 2011) co-supervised with Prof Tony Clare
• Jinwei Zhang (PhD awarded May 2011)
• Nithya Rajarajan (PhD)
• Jodie Symington (EngD)
• Chelsea Brain (EngD)
• Rob Shields (PhD, 2010 - 2014)
• Rekha Subramanian (MPhil 2010-11)
• Sarah Smith (MSc Industrial and Commercial Biotechnology 2011)
• Aggie Cangardel (MPhil 2011-12)
• Chris Armsby (MPhil 2012-13)
• Edward Mason (MPhil 2012-13)
• Kawther Al-Belushi (PhD 2012-2016)
• Andrea Pujol (MD 2012-16)
• Martin Marsh (MD 2013-2016)

Esteem Indicators

• 1993 Co-founded the Journal of Marine Biotechnology in Tokyo
• 2000 Invited Member of the Steering Committee, NERC Thematic Programme in Marine and Freshwater Microbial Biodiversity (Total budget ~£8m)
• 2000 Invited organiser of three international conferences
• 2000 Six keynote lectures at international conferences invited in the last three years
• 2000 Invited expert referee for national proposals in Marine Biotechnology for Ireland, USA, Norway and Singapore
• 2002 Appointed Editor in Chief of “Marine Biotechnology”, presiding over a steadily rising Impact Factor
• 2005 Invited onto Management Board of DTI’s £3.5m Knowledge Transfer Network in Biotechnology for Business
• 2005 Appointed to the UK’s first Chair in Marine Biotechnology
• 2005 Appointed Director of the Dove Marine Laboratory until 2011
• 2005 Appointed to Senate as Faculty representative
• 2006 Awarded SAGE Faculty Teaching Fellowship for the project Beyond Powerpoint
• 2006 Joy Welch Educational Trust Award

• Villapun VM, Tardio S, Cumpson P, Burgess JG, Dover LG, Gonzalez S. Antimicrobial properties of Cu-based bulk metallic glass composites after surface modification. Surface and Coatings Technology 2019, 372, 111-120.
• Al-Wahiabi A, Lapinska E, Rajarajan N, Dobretsov S, Upstill-Goddard R, Burgess JG. Secretion of DNases by marine bacteria: a culture based and bioinformatics approach. Frontiers in Microbiology 2019, 10, 969.
• Dzeha T, Nyiro C, Kardasopoulos D, Mburu D, Mwafaida J, Hall MJ, Burgess JG. UV Resistance of bacteria from the Kenyan Marine cyanobacterium, Moorea Producens. MicrobiologyOpen 2019, 8(4), e00697.
• Basle A, Hewitt L, Koh A, Lamb HK, Thompson P, Burgess JG, Hall MJ, Hawkins AR, Murray H, Lewis RJ. Crystal structure of NucB, a biofilm-degrading endonuclease. Nucleic Acids Research 2018, 46(1), 473-484.
• Bakshani CR, Morales-Garcia AL, Althaus M, Wilcox MD, Pearson JP, Bythell JC, Burgess G. Evolutionary conservation of the antimicrobial function of mucus: a first defence against infection. npj Biofilms and Microbiomes 2018, 4(14), 1-12.
• Brunt EG, Burgess JG. The promise of marine molecules as cosmetic active ingredients. International Journal of Cosmetic Science 2018, 40(1), 1-15.
• Al-Naamani L, Dobretsov S, Dutta J, Burgess JG. Chitosan-zinc oxide nanocomposite coatings for the prevention of marine biofouling. Chemosphere 2017, 168, 408-417.
• Zhang J, Burgess JG. Enhanced eicosapentaenoic acid production by a new deep-sea marine bacterium Shewanella electrodiphila MAR441^T. PLoS ONE 2017, 12(11), e0188081.
• Nicolas AP, Marsh M, Rajarajan N, Jakubovics N, Burgess JG, Reed M. Enzmatic biofilm prevention using a marine endonuclease - a new paradigm in the treatment of periprosthetic joint infections. In: Society of Academic and Research Surgery 2016 Annual Meeting. 2016, London: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Uzoigwe C, Burgess JG, Ennis CJ, Rahman PKSM. Bioemulsifiers are not biosurfactants and require different screening approaches. Frontiers in Microbiology 2015, 6, 245.
• Jakubovics NS, Burgess JG. Extracellular DNA in oral microbial biofilms. Microbes and Infection 2015, 17(7), 531-537.
• Zhang JW, Burgess JG. Shewanella electrodiphila sp nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from Mid-Atlantic Ridge deep-sea sediments. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 2015, 65, 2882-2889.
• Al-Belushi KIA, Stead SM, Burgess JG. The development of marine biotechnology in Oman: Potential for capacity building through open innovation. Marine Policy 2015, 57, 147-157.
• Goddard S, Delghandi M, Dobretsov S, Al-Oufi H, Al-Habsi S, Burgess JG. The First GCC Marine Biotechnology Symposium: Emerging Opportunities and Future Perspectives. Marine Biotechnology 2015, 17(3), 285-289.
• Nijland R, Hall MJ, Burgess JG. Dispersal of biofilms by secreted, matrix degrading, bacterial Dnase. In: Biofilm Control and Antimicrobial Agents. Apple Academic Press, 2014, pp.27-44.
• Shields RC, Mokhtar N, Ford M, Hall MJ, Burgess JG, ElBadawey MR, Jakubovics NS. Efficacy of a Marine Bacterial Nuclease against Biofilm Forming Microorganisms Isolated from Chronic Rhinosinusitis. PLoS One 2013, 8(2), e55339.
• Jakubovics NS, Shields RC, Rajarajan N, Burgess JG. Life after death: the critical role of extracellular DNA in microbial biofilms. Letters in Applied Microbiology 2013, 57(6), 467-475.
• Rajarajan N, Ward AC, Burgess JG, Glassey J. Use of physiological information and process optimisation enhances production of extracellular nuclease by a marine strain of Bacillus licheniformis. Bioresource Technology 2013, 130, 552-558.
• Bacchetti De Gregoris T, Khandeparker L, Anil AC, Mesbahi E, Burgess JG, Clare AS. Characterisation of the bacteria associated with barnacle, Balanus amphitrite, shell and their role in gregarious settlement of cypris larvae. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 2012, 413, 7-12.
• Zhang J, Zhang E, Scott K, Burgess JG. Enhanced Electricity Production by Use of Reconstituted Artificial Consortia of Estuarine Bacteria Grown as Biofilms. Environmental Science and Technology 2012, 46(5), 2984-2992.
• Burgess JG. New and emerging analytical techniques for marine biotechnology. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2012, 23(1), 29-33.
• Li MQ, Canniffe DP, Jackson PJ, Davison PA, FitzGerald S, Dickman MJ, Burgess JG, Hunter CN, Huang WE. Rapid resonance Raman microspectroscopy to probe carbon dioxide fixation by single cells in microbial communities. ISME Journal 2012, 6(4), 875-885.
• Shakir A, ElBadawey MR, Shields RC, Jakubovics NS, Burgess JG. Removal of Biofilms from Tracheoesophageal Speech Valves Using a Novel Marine Microbial Deoxyribonuclease. Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery 2012, 147(3), 509-514.
• Burgess JG, Hall MJ, Nijland R. Compounds and methods for biolfilm disruption and prevention. PCT/EP2011/052062, 2011, 11/02/2014.
• Bacchetti De Gregoris T, Rupp O, Klages S, Knaust F, Bekel T, Kube M, Burgess JG, Arnone MI, Goesmann A, Reinhardt R, Clare AS. Deep sequencing of naupliar-, cyprid- and adult-specific normalised Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) libraries of the acorn barnacle Balanus amphitrite. Biofouling 2011, 27(4), 367-374.
• Bacchetti De Gregoris T, Aldred N, Clare AS, Burgess JG. Improvement of phylum- and class-specific primers for real-time PCR of bacterial taxa. Journal of Microbiological Methods 2011, 86(3), 351-356.
• Nijland R, Burgess JG. Bacterial olfaction. Biotechnology Journal 2010, 5(9), 974-977.
• Burgess JG, Hall MJ, Nijland R. Compounds and methods for biofilm disruption and prevention. GB1002396.8, 2010, 12 February.
• Nijland N, Hall MJ, Burgess JG. Dispersal of Biofilms by Secreted, Matrix Degrading, Bacterial DNase. PLoS One 2010, 5(12), e15668.
• Landini P, Antoniani D, Burgess JG, Nijland R. Molecular mechanisms of compounds affecting bacterial biofilm formation and dispersal. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2010, 86(3), 813-823.
• Nijland R, Burgess JG, Errington J, Veening JW. Transformation of Environmental Bacillus subtilis Isolates by Transiently Inducing Genetic Competence. PLoS One 2010, 5(3), e9724.
• De Gregoris TB, Borra M, Biffali E, Bekel T, Burgess JG, Kirby RR, Clare AS. Construction of an adult barnacle (Balanus amphitrite) cDNA library and selection of reference genes for quantitative RT-PCR studies. BMC Molecular Biology 2009, 10(1), 62.
• Burgess JG. Biotechnological applications of the genus Vibrio. In: Thompson, FL, Austin, B and Swings, J, ed. The Biology of Vibrios. Washington DC: ASM Press, 2006.
• Jamal MT, Morris PC, Hansen R, Jamieson DJ, Burgess JG, Austin B. Recovery and characterization of a 30.7-kDa protein from Bacillus licheniformis associated with inhibitory activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and Listeria monocytogenes. Marine Biotechnology 2006, 8(6), 587-592.
• Yan L, Boyd KG, Burgess JG. Biofilm-Specific Cross-Species Induction of Antimicrobial Compounds in Bacilli. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2003, 69(7), 3719-3727.
• Tanaka T, Yan L, Burgess JG. Microbulbifer arenaceous sp. Nov., a new endolithic bacterium isolated from the inside of red sandstone. Current Microbiology 2003, 7(5), 412-416.
• Burgess JG, Boyd KG, Yan L, Armstrong E, Jiang Z, Yan L, Berggren M, May U, Pisacane T, Granmo A, Adams DR. The Development of a Marine Natural Product-based Antifouling Paint. Biofouling 2003, 19(s1), 197-205.
• Piedad Diaz M, Grigson SJW, Burgess JG. Biodegradation of crude oil across a wide range of salinities by an extremely halotolerant bacterial consortium MPD-M, immobilised onto polypropylene fibres. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 2002, 79(2), 145-153.
• Burja AM, Abou-Mansour E, Banaigs B, Payri C, Burgess JG, Wright PC. Culture of the marine cyanobacterium, Lyngbya majuscula (Oscillatoriaceae), for bioprocess intensified production of cyclic and linear lipopeptides. Journal of Microbiological Methods 2002, 48(2-3), 207-219.
• Arrigi RBG, Nakamura C, Miyake J, Hurd H, Burgess JG. Design and Activity of Antimicrobial Peptides against Sporogonic-Stage Parasites Causing Murine Malarias. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 2002, 46(7), 2104-2110.
• Jiang Z, Barret MO, Boyd KG, Adams DR, Boyd ASF, Burgess JG. JM47, a cyclic tetrapeptide HC-toxin analogue from a marine Fusarium species. Phytochemistry 2002, 60(1), 33-38.
• Yan L, Boyd KG, Burgess JG. Surface attachment induced production of antimicrobial compounds by marine epiphytic bacteria using modified roller bottle cultivation. Marine Biotechnology 2002, 4(4), 356-366.
• Wood TA, Murray KR, Burgess JG. Ferrous Sulphate Oxidation using Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Cells Immobilised on Sand for the Purpose of Treating Acid Mine Drainage. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2001, 56(3-4), 560-565.
• Tanaka T, Burgess JG, Wright PC. High-pressure adaptation by salt stress in a moderately halophilic bacterium obtained from open seawater. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2001, 57(1-2), 200-204.
• Burja AM, Banaigs B, Abou-Mansour BE, Burgess JG, Wright PC. Marine Cyanobacteria - A Prolific Source of Natural Products. Tetrahedron 2001, 57(46), 9347-9377.
• Osinga R, Armstrong E, Burgess JG, Hoffman F, Reitner J, Schumann-Kindel G. Sponge-microbe associations and their importance for sponge bioprocess engineering. Hydrobiologia 2001, 461(1-3), 55-62.
• Armstrong E, Yan L, Boyd KG, Wright PC, Burgess JG. The symbiotic role of marine microbes on living surfaces. Hydrobiologia 2001, 461(1-3), 37-40.
• Jiang Z, Mearns-Spragg A, Adams DR, Wright PC, Burgess JG. Two diketopiperazines and one halogenated phenol from cultures of the marine bacterium, Pseudoaltermonas luteoviolacea. Natural Products Letters 2001, 14(6), 435-440.
• Bustard MT, McEvoy EM, Goodwin JAS, Burgess JG, Wright PC. Biodegradation of propanol and isopropanol by a mixed microbial consortium. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2000, 54(3), 424-431.
• Bustard MT, Burgess JG, Meeyoo V, Wright PC. Novel opportunities for marine hyperthermophiles in emerging biotechnology and engineering industries. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 2000, 75(12), 1095-1109.
• Armstrong E, Boyd KG, Burgess JG. Prevention of marine biofouling using natural compounds from marine organisms. Biotechnology Annual Review 2000, 6, 221-241.
• Marwick JD, Wright PC, Burgess JG. Biodegradation of propanol and isopropanol by a mixed microbial consortiumBioprocess Intensification for Production of Novel Marine Bacterial Antibiotics Through Bioreactor Operation and Design. Marine Biotechnology 1999, 1(5), 495-507.
• Wright PC, Stevenson C, McEvoy E, Burgess JG. Opportunities for marine bioprocess intensification using novel bioreactor design: frequency of barotolerance in microorganisms obtained from surface waters. Journal of Biotechnology 1999, 70(1-3), 343-349.
• Burgess, J.G., Kawaguchi, R., Sakaguchi, T., Thornhill, R.H. and Matsunaga, T. Evolutionary relationships among Magnetospirillum strains inferred from phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA sequences. Journal of Bacteriology 1993, 175(20), 6689-6694.