MA (University of Cambridge)

DPhil (University of Sussex)

Since graduating from Cambridge University my career has been spent both in academia and industry. I did my DPhil at the University of Sussex, followed by post-doctoral work at Sussex and in the Department of Biochemistry at Bristol University. This was followed by a stint working in one of the first agri-biotechnology companies, Advanced Genetic Sciences Inc., in California, USA. This gave me an insight into the application of molecular biology techniques in a commercial setting, and developed my interest in the interface of science and society. This in turn led both to an interest in the ethical aspects of science, a subject which I now teach, and to appointment to the Food Standards Agency committee that oversaw the regulation of GM food in the UK. I returned to the UK to a position at the University of Birmingham in 1990 and have worked here as lecturer, senior lecturer and reader since then apart from a spell as a visiting senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

I have responsibility for both the Molecular Biotechnology MSc and the Professional Placement undergraduate programme. I teach various aspects of cell biology, structural biology, microbiology, genetics, and bioethics, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I emphasise the importance of an understanding of research findings in science teaching and run several practicals incorporating experimental design

I have successfully supervised over twenty PhD students while at Birmingham, including several joint students and several CASE projects with industrial partners. For a list of possible PhD projects see www.findaphd.com/search/customlink.asp?inst=birm-Biol&supersurname=Lund .

Research Theme within School of Biosciences: Molecular Microbiology

Short research description: Understanding stress responses from molecules to systems.

Full research description:

Stress responses: understanding the mechanisms and roles of molecular chaperones, signalling systems, and regulatory networks

The over-arching aim of our research is to understand cellular stress responses. By stress responses we mean the changes that take place in organisms when they are placed under stressful conditions. Such stresses may involve changes in temperature, pH, osmotic potential, redox potential, starvation for essential nutrients, etc. In understanding stress responses we would like ultimately to know

• how stresses are detected
• how detection leads to a response
• what the nature of the response is
• what the roles of the different components of the response are
• how these roles are fulfilled by the components of the stress response

We use bacteria and archaea as model systems for investigating the points above. Our methodological approaches range from classical molecular genetics, biochemistry, and biophysics, to high throughput approaches including whole genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and network prediction and analysis. We are currently studying three specific topics.

1) The acid stress network of E. coli

2) The role of duplicated molecular chaperone proteins in Mycobacteria

3) The structure and function of the archaeal thermosome protein

Funding: Our work is currently supported by funding from BBSRC and the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh.

PhD students:

Matt Johnson: The acid response networks of normal and pathogenic E. coli

Riddhi Shah: Genetic analysis of thermosome function in archaea and E. coli

Jaannika Kronberg (joint student): Systems biology of the E. coli acid stress response.

Collaborations:

We have an extensive set of collaborations in Birmingham, in the UK, and internationally. We have close links with bioinformatics and systems biology experts Dr Nick Loman, Professor Mark Pallen, and Dr Francisco Falciani in our acid-stress work, and with Dr Apoorva Bhatt in our Mycobacterial project. UK collaborators include Dr Dov Stekel (Nottingham) on the acid stress project, Professors Brian Henderson (UCL) and Tony Coates (St George's Hospital) on the Mycobacterial work, and Dr James Chong (York) on the archaeal thermosome project. We have a long-standing link with the chaperone group in Bristol (Professor Tony Clarke and Dr Steve Burston). We also collaborate with colleagues in Germany (Dr Joerg Martin in Martinsried and Prof Joerg Soppa in Frankfurt) on different aspects of the archaeal projects, and with colleagues in Japan (Dr Yoko Eguchi and Professor Ryutaro Utsumi) on the acid stress project. A new collaboration is being established with groups at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

I am a parent governor linked to the Science Faculty at Bournville School and Sixth Form Centre. I was a founder member of the UK Food Ethics Council and a former member of the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes. I currently am a member of the BBSRC's “Panel of Experts” and an editor of FEMS Microbiology Letters.

I am convener for the UK Molecular Chaperone Club

Publications since 2009 are shown below.

Johnson MD, Burton NA, Gutiérrez B, Painter K, Lund PA. RcsB is required for inducible acid resistance in E. coli and acts at gadE dependent and independent promoters. J Bacteriol. 2011 May 13. [Epub ahead of print]

Stincone A, Daudi N, Rahman AS, Antczak P, Henderson IR, Cole JA, Johnson MD, Lund Pa and Falciani F. A systems biology approach sheds new light on Escherichia coli acid resistance. Nucleic Acids Res., 2011, in press.

Large AT and Lund PA. Archaeal chaperonins. Frontiers in Biosci, 14 1304-1324 (2009) 

Lund PA  Multiple chaperonins in bacteria – why so many? FEMS Microbiology Reviews 4: 785-800 (2009) 

Liu H, Kovács E, and Lund PA. Characterisation of mutations in GroES that allow GroEL to function as a single ring. FEBS Letters 583: 2365-2371 (2009) 

Holmes CW, Penn CW, Lund PA. The hrcA and hspR regulons of Campylobacter jejuni. Microbiology. 156: 158-166 (2010).  

Kovács E, Sun Z, Liu H, Scott DJ, Karsisiotis AI, Clarke AR, Burston SG, Lund PA. Characterisation of a GroEL single-ring mutant that supports growth of Escherichia coli and has GroES-dependent ATPase activity. J Mol Biol. 396: 1271-83 (2010). 

Henderson B, Lund PA, Coates AR. Multiple moonlighting functions of mycobacterial molecular chaperones. Tuberculosis (Edinb). 90: 119-124 (2010). 

Burton NA, Johnson MD, Antczak P, Robinson A, Lund PA. Novel aspects of the acid response network of E. coli K-12 are revealed by a study of transcriptional dynamics. J Mol Biol. 401: 726-42 (2010) 

Rao T, Lund PA. Differential expression of the multiple chaperonins of Mycobacterium smegmatis. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 310: 24-31. (2010) 

Lund PA. Insights into chaperonin function from studies on archaeal thermosomes. Biochem Soc Trans 39:94-98 (2011)