Dr Simon Moore

The Moore Lab - Synthetic Biology for Natural Products For full details of the group, please visit the official website or follow on twitter. www.simonmoorelab.com https://twitter.com/sjmoore505
 
Simon re-joined the School in September 2018 as a Lecturer in Molecular Biology. He  previously studied for a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Kent with Professor Martin Warren.  A Postdoctoral position followed, with Professor Paul Freemont and Dr Karen Polizzi at Imperial College, London.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1968-206X

Synthetic Biology for Natural Products
Natural products from soil bacteria Synthetic Biology
Cell-free protein synthesis 

Undergraduate

• BI628 Microbial Physiology and Genetics II (Module convenor)

MSc-R projects available for 2021

Mining for antimicrobial drugs with synthetic biology 

Synthetic biology is accelerating the discovery of promising new antibiotics and anti-tumour drugs, from microbial genomes. This will project will use Gibson DNA assembly to assembly so-called “cryptic” biosynthetic gene clusters encoded from microbial genomes. We will screen for antimicrobial activity, characterise for cluster function (RT-PCR, SDS-PAGE) and perform natural product purification (e.g. chromatography, HPLC, NMR).

Streptomyces Cell-free Protein Synthesis  

Jointly supervised with Tobias von der Haar

Cell-free protein synthesis is a rapidly developing area in synthetic biology for the implementation of the design-built-test-learn cycle. In this project, we are interested in the potential of a Streptomyces cell-free system for studying gene expression tools and the synthesis of novel antimicrobials. 

This project will involve Golden Gate DNA assembly and routine techniques in gene expression analysis.

Further reading

Cell-Free Synthetic Biology: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/12103/cell-free-synthetic-biology

Streptomyces CFPS: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.16.384693v2.full

An automated platform for ESKAPE pathogen antimicrobial discovery

The ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp) are multidrug-resistant bacteria found in nosocomial clinical infections and a growing concern for hospitals; novel antibiotics with distinct modes of action are required. We are interested in the development of an automated workflow for novel antimicrobial discovery. We will specifically study methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for drug screening using a unique approach to detect bioactivity, potentially at a high-throughput scale.

PhD student and Research Master applications from UK, EU, & Overseas are always considered. Various funding sources and scholarships can be explored for PhD studentship applications. Please send your CV and summary of your research interests to: s.j.r.moore@kent.ac.uk