2010 Annual Report - Institute for Molecular Bioscience - University ...

imb annual report 2010
58
GLENN KING
BUGS AND DRUGS: RATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
OF NOVEL ANTIBIOTICS, ANALGESICS, AND
ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY INSECTICIDES
RESEARCH IN MY LABORATORY
is aimed at the development of
novel pharmaceutical agents and
environmentally-friendly insecticides.
Approximately half of the group is studying
bacterial cytokinesis or signalling by
bacterial histidine kinases in order to
provide a molecular understanding of
these key biological processes and to
establish a platform for the development
of novel antimicrobial agents. The
remainder of the group is focused on
developing novel antinociceptive agents
and environmentally-friendly insecticides
Model of the interactions between various
components of the Escherichia coli divisome.
Schematic of a voltage-gated calcium
channel.
Mexican red-kneed tarantula (Brachypelma
smithii).
by harnessing the remarkable chemical
diversity encoded in the venoms of spiders
and scorpions. Most research projects are
highly interdisciplinary and the experimental
techniques employed range from molecular
biology through protein chemistry to
structure determination using NMR
spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.
Research in the lab is currently funded by
three ARC and five NHMRC research grants.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
• Developing novel antibiotics targeted
against Gram-positive pathogens
• Investigating the architecture of the
bacterial cell division machinery
• Using venom peptides to characterise
ion channels involved in sensing pain
• Developing environmentally-friendly
insecticides based on spider-venom
peptides
KEY PUBLICATIONS
Mobli, M., Dantas de Araújo, A., Lambert,
L., Pierens, G.K., Alewood, P.F., and King,
G.F. (2009). Direct visualization of disulfide
bonds via diselenide proxies using 77 Se
NMR. Angewandte Chemie International
Edition 48: 9312-9314.
Gorbatyuk, V.Y., Nosworthy, N.J., Robson,
S.A., Bains, N.P.S., Maciejewski, M.W.,
dos Remedios, C.G., and King, G.F.
(2006). Mapping the phosphoinositidebinding
site on chick cofilin explains how
PIP 2 regulates the cofilin-actin interaction.
Molecular Cell 24: 511–522.
Robson, S.A., and King, G.F. (2006).
Domain architecture and structure of
the bacterial cell division protein DivIB.
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences USA 103: 6700–6705.
Sollod, B.L., Wilson, D., Zhaxybayeva,
O., Gogarten, J.P., Drinkwater, R., and
King, G.F. (2005). Were arachnids the first
to use combinatorial peptide libraries
Peptides 26: 131–139.
Rowland, S.L., Burkholder, W.F.,
Cunningham, K.A., Maciejewski, M.W.,
Grossman, A.D., and King, G.F. (2004).
Structure and mechanism of Sda, an
inhibitor of the histidine kinases that
regulate initiation of sporulation in Bacillus
subtilis. Molecular Cell 13: 689–701.
LAB MEMBERS
Senior Research Officers: Dr Susan L.
Rowland, Dr Mehdi Mobli
Research Officers: Dr Raveendra Anangi,
Dr Kathryn Greenwood, Dr Volker Herzig,
Dr Rikki Hvorup, Dr Brit Winnen
Research Assistant: Radha Seshadri
PhD Students: Margaret Hardy,
Sandy Gonzalez, Jonas Jensen, David
Morgenstern, Natalie Saez
MSc Students: Sing Yan Er, Lena
Grimm, Madeleine Kuenz, Xiao Zhen Lin,
Chek-Fong Low, Ramya Ramachandran,
Sebastian Senff, Nga Pham, Xiao Lin
Honours Students: Carus Lau, Tomas
Miljenovic, Darshani Rapasinghe
Home page for the ArachnoServer database
(www.arachnoserver.org).