1. Prof. Ramesh Wigneshweraraj s.r.wig@imperial.ac.uk
Head of Section – Microbiology
Director of PhD Training (CMBI)

2. CMBI

3. Our Mission
Uniquely focused on research and training in molecular mechanisms underpinning bacterial infection biology and bacterial resistance to antibiotics

4. Our Research Themes Bacterial physiology and pathogenesis
Antibiotic resistance and persistence
Microbiota
Host innate immunity

5. Our Research Topics Characterization of disulfide bond formation
in bacterial pathogens
Cell wall assembly and nucleotide signaling in Gram-positive bacterial pathogens
Innate immune responses to commensal
and pathogenic bacteria
Common infection strategies between intracellular
and  extracellular pathogens
Staphylococcal persistence in host tissues
Meningococcal genomics/Type IV pilus biology
Systems microbiology and the
biology of tuberculosis
E. coli and Legionella pathogenesis
Clostridial pathogens
Salmonella pathogenesis
Pseudomonas pathogenesis
Intracellular host defense
how does host genotype affect the biology of bacterial infection?
Gene regulation in bacterial pathogenesis
Structural studies of bacterial adhesion
and biofilm formation

6. Our Pathogens Citrobacter rodentium Clostridium difficile
Escherichia coli
Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca
Legionella pneumophila
Listeria monocytogenes
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Neisseria meningitidis
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Typhi
Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri
Staphylococcus aureus
Streptococcus pneumoniae
….and many more !

7. Our Approach
‘communities’
‘single cell’
‘single molecule’

8. Our Philosophy Internal Centers of Excellence Imperial College
e.g. Centre for Structural Biology
Imperial College
Hospitals
External Centers of Excellence
e.g. Sanger Institute, Crick Institute, Indian Institute of Science, IMIB (Germany)
Industry

9. Training Vision
Centre of Excellence in PhD-level training in bacterial infection biology
Contribute to delivery of the next-generation of high-calibre PhD-trained
young academic and clinical researchers in bacterial infection biology
Use training mission to provide added-value to the CMBI to catalyse new
collaborations:
- between CMBI members
- with clinicians
- with other Centres of Excellence within and outside IC
- with industry for translational research

10. Clinical Research Training Fellowships
PhD Training
Clinical Research Training Fellowships
4 CRTF available to start immediately
Embedded into CATO (Clinical Academic Training Office)
support, mentorship, genetic skills, networks, cohort identity
All CMBI CRTFs will have a clinician as 2nd supervisor
Candidate-driven project allocation (preferred route)
Induction training

11. Our statistics 19 independent group leaders
5 independent research fellows
(incl. 1 ARC Fellow)
41 Post-doctoral staff
>50 PhD students (3 CRTFs)
£16.5M income from competitive grant funding
(past 5 years; initial investment: £3.3M)
286 Publications (past 5 years)