Robert Smith Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Designing and leading two challenging research projects, developing protocols and tools on non model microorganisms. As a Post doctoral research I lead a research project aiming to understand and recreate the ancient bacterial evolutionary event of outer membrane loss, an event which gave rise to gram positive bacteria. To accomplish this I developed a long term experiment evolution set up, built a CRISPR cas mutagenesis system and developed high depth transposon sequencing in the non… Show more Designing and leading two challenging research projects, developing protocols and tools on non model microorganisms. As a Post doctoral research I lead a research project aiming to understand and recreate the ancient bacterial evolutionary event of outer membrane loss, an event which gave rise to gram positive bacteria. To accomplish this I developed a long term experiment evolution set up, built a CRISPR cas mutagenesis system and developed high depth transposon sequencing in the non model bacteria V. parvula. During discussions with a colleague we designed a research project to identify the elusive first enzyme responsible for cell separation in archaea possessing a cell wall. We applied for and received seed fundind, initiated collaborations and were successful in identifying and characterising the new enzyme TalA.During my PostDoc I took on several additional roles including: grant writing, managing masters student and PhD student projects, recruitment and acting as postdoc representative for the department of microbiology. Show less

Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

Using a combination of molecular biology and biochemistry to understand the Virulence of Enterococcus faecalis.My PhD project was titled 'Structure and functional analysis of the enterococcal polysaccharide antigen'. During my PhD I learned to manage a research project and learned how to learn new technical skills. I gained a high level of competance in Microbiology, Molecular biology and microbial genetics in order to characterize the function of EPA as well as… Show more Using a combination of molecular biology and biochemistry to understand the Virulence of Enterococcus faecalis.My PhD project was titled 'Structure and functional analysis of the enterococcal polysaccharide antigen'. During my PhD I learned to manage a research project and learned how to learn new technical skills. I gained a high level of competance in Microbiology, Molecular biology and microbial genetics in order to characterize the function of EPA as well as biochemistry skills including cell wall, polysaccharide and protein purifications combined biophysical techniques such as NMR and GC-MS for structural analysis.During my PhD I had the opportunity to undertake two internships. The First at Protein Metrics in California where I improved proteomics analysis software for glycopeptide detection. During this time I was involved in a collaborative project which was eventually published in Nature Microbiology. The second was an EMBO fellowship at the University of Lille where I learned polysaccharide NMR and biochemistry. Both of these internships abroad taught me how to adapt to new working environments. Show less

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Optimized techniques for mutagenesis in E. coli and P. aeruginosa.

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Developed a high throughput microscopic assay for measurement of GPCR internalization and recycling