Professor Simon Foster
School of Biosciences
West Riding Chair in Microbiology
West Riding Chair in Microbiology


+44 114 222 4411
Full contact details
School of Biosciences
Firth Court
Western Bank
葫芦影业
S10 2TN
- Profile
-
Career history
- 2020 - present: West Riding Chair in Microbiology
- 2017 - present: Faculty Director Research and Innovation, University of 葫芦影业
- 2008 - 2017: Director Krebs Institute, University of 葫芦影业
- 1999 - present: Professor of Molecular Microbiology, University of 葫芦影业
- 1993 - 2002: Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of 葫芦影业
- 1990 - 1993: J.G. Graves Medical Research Fellow, University of 葫芦影业
- 1986 - 1990: Broodbank Fellow, University of Cambridge
- 1984 - 1986: PhD, University of Cambridge
- 1983 - 1984: PhD, University of Leeds
- Research interests
-
Bacterial cell wall architecture and dynamics
The cell wall is essential for bacterial life and its synthesis is the target of crucial antibiotics such as penicillin and vancomycin. We determine the structure and function of the cell wall to elucidate not only how it permits cell growth but also how antibiotics lead to death. We use the infamous 鈥渟uper bug鈥 Staphylococcus aureus as our target organism to address key fundamental questions of bacterial life and death.
Our primary goals are to:
- determine the molecular structure of the cell wall and how it changes during growth, at a resolution never previously achieved in any organism, using our world-leading microscopy approaches.
- use this information to then establish how the cell wall acts as the interface between a cell and its environment.
- bring together our findings to establish the basic mechanisms underpinning growth, the action of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance across bacteria.
Staphylococcus aureus disease
S. aureus is a major human pathogen of increasing importance due to the spread of antibiotic resistance. Our research spans from the fundamental through to translational approaches to develop new control regimes. We use a range of models to investigate host:pathogen interaction.
Our primary goals are to:
- elucidate S. aureus infection dynamics to determine how this organism is able to cause disease.
- investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of infection from both the host and pathogen perspective.
- use this information to better inform vaccine development and the use of antibiotics to treat infection.
Research Keywords
Microbiology, Staphylococcus aureus, pathogenicity, cell wall structure
- Publications
-
Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
All publications
Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Posters
Datasets
Preprints
- Research group
- Teaching activities
-
- MBB323 Microbial Structure and Dynamics: Genes and Populations (Module Coordinator)
- MBB335 Bacterial Pathogenicity
Links