CDT Lab Pages
These pages describe a little more about our work on staphylococcal plasmids, their replication and mobilisation. Currently they are aimed at prospective students - existing undergraduates and postgraduate students on rotation who wish to carry out their research project in the lab, and prospective new postgraduate students.
We carry out our research on level 10 of the Astbury Building. If you want to visit in person, please email to arrange a time. If you can't visit but would still like to get in touch, please let me know what aspect of the research interests you. Otherwise I'll probably direct you to this web page...
Related pages will be added to the list on the left as they are constructed.
main links
- Lab Projects
for current students - both Wellcome Trust rotation students and BMB undergraduates interested in carrying out projects in the lab. What we do; what we hope to do in the next 12 months. - Postgraduate study
for prospective new students, including information on how to apply. - Plasmids pages
with contacts for all your favorite Plasmid sites, meetings and people. The directory of other researchers with interests in Plasmid Biology has now been tranferred to the web site of the International Society for Plasmid Biology. Plasmids pages carry links to this and other related sites.
Our lab is also represented via two official sites:
- the official Chris Thomas page of the Faculty of Biological Sciences,
with a brief description of our own work on plasmid replication and mobilisation.
- several links via the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology:
Chris Thomas page at ACSMB
- These pages from the ACSMB annual reports summarise recent work:
from 2009:
Induced bending of a plasmid origin of replication by its cognate replication initiator protein, RepD, and the helicase PcrA
- and 2008:
The staphylococcal PcrA helicase requires the action of both the replication initiator RepD and SSB proteins to unwind the small plasmid pCERoriD
Cross-specificity in the dimerisation of pT181 family Rep proteins
- and 2007:
Understanding the recruitment and processivity of the staphylococcal helicase PcrA in the context of plasmid replication
- and 2006:
Molecular mechanism of Staphylococcal plasmid transfer [PDF]
Structure determination of a 59 kDa fragment of the DNA-cleavage domain of topoisomerase IV from Staphylococcus aureus [PDF]
- and 2005:
Determination of the structure of a type IV topisomerase from Staphylococcus aureus [PDF]
Molecular mechanism of Staphylococcal plasmid transfer [PDF]
- and 2004:
Molecular mechanism of Staphylococcal plasmid transfer [PDF]
DNA:DNA interactions mediate sequence specificity in the termination of plasmid replication [PDF]
Crystallographic studies of a type IV topoisomerase from Staphylococcus aureus [PDF]
- Some pages from the ACSMB annual report 2003 may still be available:
High throughput techniques as a strategy to overcome crystal twinning [PDF]
Molecular mechanism of Staphylococcal plasmid transfer [PDF]
Investigating the interaction of quinolones with topoisomerase IV of Staphylococcus aureus [PDF]
Dimer specificity in a replication initiator protein [PDF]