Brendan is a pioneer in genome sequencing and co-led the Campylobacter jejuni, Yersinia pestis, Yersinia enterocolitica, Francisella tularensis and Clostridium difficile genome projects. Post genome research strategies are used to gain a comprehensive understanding of how bacteria function, interact with their respective hosts and cause disease.
Originally, Brendan studied for a PhD in Physical Chemistry at Leicester University and published seminal papers on radical cations and the effect of ionizing radiation on DNA. He then took a position in Medical Microbiology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital prior to joining LSHTM.
At the LSHTM Brendan has served as Head of Department, Research Degrees Director, and Dean of Faculty. He is currently Co-director of the LSHTM Vaccine Centre.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Brendan teaches on the LSHTM Medical Microbiology MSc in areas relating to bacterial pathogenesis and genomics. He also delivers lectures on translational microbiology and vaccinology at Imperial College and UCL.
Research
Brendan’s research is divided between studying the glycobiology of selected pathogens with applications in glycoconjugate vaccine design and the use of genome sequence data to understand bacterial transmission, evolution and virulence.
The group has used Protein Glycan Coupling Technology (Bioconjugation) to produce novel Shigella, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Group A Strep, Group B Strep, Brucella, and Francisella glycoconjugate vaccines as well as several animal vaccines. The custom-made vaccines produced by this process are effective, pure, and less expensive than conventional glycoconjugate vaccines. Recently the group has used synthetic biology approaches (eg refactoring, and combinatorial design) to characterise and efficiently express glycans in bacterial cells. This technology complements Bioconjugation, further reducing the cost of vaccines.
Brendan is Co-Director of GlycoCell, a UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hub. He is Co-lead of the Wellcome funded Campylobacter Control Campagne. Brendan is a co-applicant on two vaccine manufacture hubs (VaxHub sustainable and VaxHub global), where Bioconjugate vaccines are being scaled up towards GMP and clinical trials. He is co-founder of ArkVax, a LSHTM spin-out company, that exploits Bioconjugation for the development of animal vaccines. Beyond vaccines, advances in bacterial glycoengineering will benefit basic research and the production of therapeutics that require specific glycosylation.
Selected Publications
