Professor Ian Roberts

BSc, PhD

Summary

Photograph of Professor Ian Roberts

Contact details:

Michael Smith Building|Oxford Road|Manchester|M13 9PT

Telephone: +44 (0)161 275 5753
Email: i.s.roberts@manchester.ac.uk
Website(s): Immunology and Microbiology

Research interests

Interactions between pathogens and the host. Research in my laboratory is focused on the interactions between bacteria and their human hosts. Pathogenic bacteria are responsible for a number of life threatening infections of man and have devised strategies to overcome the host host’s defences. Specifically, they produce “virulence factors” that manipulate and re-program the ability of the host to combat the infection and it is the success or failure of this battle that will decide the outcome of the infection. In addition to looking at specific interactions between the pathogen and the host we are also looking at global changes that occur in the host as a consequence of the infection. In particular, we are looking at the microflora of the human gut and studying how infection both acute and chronic may alter the human gut flora and what are the consequences to the health of the host. We are studying two bacterial pathogens Escherichia coli responsible for urinary tract infections and Listeria monocytogenes a serious food borne pathogen. In addition, we are studying the effects of infection by the parasitic worm Trichuris muris on the host gut microflora.

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Highlight publications

  • Hayley Bennett, David Pearce, Sarah Glen, Clare Taylor, Mivhael Kuhn, Abraham Sonenshein, Peter Andrew, Ian Roberts. (2007). Characterisation of relA and codY mutants of Listeria monocytogenes:identifiaction of the CodY regulon and its rolein virulence. Molecular Microbiology, 63(5), 1453-1467. eScholarID:1c6507 | DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2958.2007.05597.x
  • Corbett D, Bennett HJ, Askar H, Green J, Roberts IS. (2007). SlyA and H-NS regulate transcription of the Escherichia coli K5 capsule gene cluster and expression of slyA in Escherichia coli is temperature dependent, positively auto-regulated and independent of H-NS. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 282(46), 33326-33335. eScholarID:1c6964 | PMID:17827501 | DOI:10.1074/jbc.M703465200
  • Hayes, K., Bancroft, A., Goldrick, M., Portsmouth, C., Roberts, I. & Grencis, R (2010). Exploitation of the intestinal microflora by the parasitic nematode Trichuris muris. Science, 328(5984), 1391-4. eScholarID:90770 | PMID:20538949 | DOI:10.1126/science.1187703
  • Thompson, J., Pourhossein, M., Waterhouse, A., Hudson, T., Goldrick, M., Derrick, J. & Roberts, I (2010). The K5 lyase KflA combines a viral tail spike structure with a bacterial polysaccharide lyase mechanism. J Biol Chem, 285(31), 23963-9. eScholarID:90771 | PMID:20519506 | DOI:10.1074/jbc.M110.127571

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