Research

For more than 15 years, David Summers' laboratory in the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University has conducted research in microbial genetics. Starting from an interest in factors affecting the inheritance of natural multicopy plasmids and cloning vectors in Escherichia coli, research projects now range from the architecture of nucleoprotein complexes in site-specific recombination, to the control of the bacterial cell cycle.

An underpinning philosophy in the laboratory is that in addition to conducting excellent basic research, it is important to pursue vigorously any discoveries which show commercial promise.

Applied projects presently include the optimisation of bacterial expression systems for recombinant proteins; the development of tightly-regulated promoters for the expression of toxic genes from both plasmids and the bacterial chromosome; and a programme is to identify and assess novel targets for antibacterial drugs, especially those involved in the control of the bacterial cell cycle.

Cambridge Microbial Technologies Ltd.

Email: info@cammicrobial.co.uk