Research

Research in the Physiology of Lactic Acid Bacteria & in vivo NMR group focus on the physiological and biochemical analysis of metabolic pathways and their regulation in Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB).

Currently, our research projects regard different aspects of carbon metabolism in LAB:

1. Investigations on carbon metabolism in Streptococcus pneumoniae; we aim at gaining insight into the regulatory mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis of the capsule, a major virulent factor in this human pathogen.

2. In collaboration with the group of Cell Physiology & NMR (http://www.itqb.unl.pt/~cp-nmr/), headed by Prof. Helena Santos, we approach different aspects of sugar metabolism in the model dairy organism Lactococcus lactis.

Our major approach to investigate regulation of sugar metabolism couples the application of in vivo Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to probe biological processes directly in living cells, with molecular genetic techniques to target genes of interest.

A range of analytical techniques as well as physiological and genetic tools to study sugar metabolism are used by this group. We also have access to a microarray facility through an external collaboration (O. P. Kuipers, The Netherlands).

The molecular mechanisms governing sugar utilization are largely unknown in S. pneumoniae. The motivation for our work is the perception of a direct connection between sugar metabolism for fitness in the host and the importance of both organisms for human health.