All the world's a Phage - viruses of bacteria and supporting SARS-Cov-2 surveillance

Inaugural Lecture - Professor Darren Smith

This lecture will take place on campus, in 003, ground floor Business and Law Building, City Campus East (full address at the bottom of the page). The lecture will also be available to stream online - please register for the event and a link will be sent to you to access the live stream.

All the world's a Phage - viruses of bacteria and supporting SARS-Cov-2 surveillance

In a timely inaugural lecture, Professor Darren Smith will talk about the last 20 months leading the Genome sequencing of SARS-Cov-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, and how data generated at Northumbria University has been used regionally and nationally to support surveillance and infection control.

He will also give an overview of his research career to date, discussing how he entered the world of microbiology and found interest in zoonotic and chronic bacterial infections. With over 20 years experience of working with viruses that infect bacteria, Professor Smith will explain how viruses are ubiquitous to all environments, can be used to control bacterial infections and, interestingly, can integrate themselves into the chromosome of the bacteria where they seek the protection of the bacterial cell whilst offering the infected cell a selective advantage in microenvironments.

He will then move to talk about the last 20 months leading the Genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, the viruses that is responsible CoviD-19, and how data generated at Northumbria University has been used regionally and nationally to support surveillance and infection control.

About the Speaker

Darren Smith is a Professor in Bacteriophage Biology within the Department of Applied Biology, Cellular and Molecular Sciences/Microbiology Group. He graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BSc in Microbiology in 2000. After 18 months working for Applied Biosystems he spent the following seven years completing both a PhD (2005) and Post-Doctoral research in the laboratory of Alan McCarthy, Heather Allison and Jon Saunders studying the biology of Shiga toxin encoding bacteriophages.

Professor Smith's research interests relate to how bacteriophages alter bacterial physiology, phenotype and bacterial community structure through chromosomal integration and subversion of cell function. 

 

To register for this free lecture, please fill in the form below.