The Franklin will be holding a seminar given by Prof Jeff Errington FMedSci FRS, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, on Monday the 21st October from 10:30.
To watch the seminar online, please sign up on the Eventbrite.
Further details on this seminar are included below.
Talk title:
L-form (cell-wall-deficient) bacteria: from recurrent infection to antibiotic mechanisms
Abstract:
Some of our most effective antibiotics work by interfering with synthesis of the bacterial cell wall. The wall is an excellent target for antibiotics as it is an essential structure in most bacteria with no equivalent target in human cells. Somewhat surprisingly, under isosmotic conditions, many bacteria can survive loss of their cell wall and grow in a state known as the “L-form”. L-forms have a number of unusual properties, not least that they do not require the normally essential FtsZ-based division machine and instead proliferate by a strange membrane blebbing or tubulation mechanism. My lab has pioneered modern molecular and cellular studies of L-forms. The presentation will provide an overview of our current understanding of L-form biology, focusing on their possible role in persistent or recurrent infection. Our work on L-forms has also provided new insights into how cell-wall-active antibiotics actually kill bacteria.