About
Mark Pallen has been Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of Birmingham since July 2001. Mark is dually qualified as a scientist (PhD) and as a medic/clinical bacteriologist (MBBS, MRCPath), and benefits from Research-Council funding for both bioinformatics and laboratory-based molecular bacteriology projects.
Qualifications
PhD 1998 (Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine)
An investigation into the links between stationary phase and virulence in Salmonella enterica enterica serovar Typhimurium
MD 1993 (St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College)
Detection and characterisation of diphtheria toxin genes and insertion sequences by PCR and other molecular techniques
MRCPath in Medical Microbiology 1991 (upgraded to FRCPath 2005)
MBBS 1981-84 (London Hospital Medical College)
BA (Hons) in Medical Sciences 1978-81 (University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam College)
- converted to MA, 1985
Biography
Having obtained his medical education from the University of Cambridge and the London Hospital Medical College, Mark completed his specialist training as a medical microbiologist at Bart’s Hospital in London. In the mid-1990s, while completing a PhD in molecular bacteriology at Imperial College, London, Mark led a team of students to victory in the BBC2 quiz show University Challenge. In 1999, he took up a chair in microbiology at Queen’s University Belfast, before moving to his current position in Birmingham in 2001.
Teaching
Mark teaches microbiology, bioinformatics and human genome evolution
Postgraduate supervision
Research
Bacterial pathogenomics; high-throughput sequencing; bioinformatics; type III secretion
Research Theme within School of Biosciences: Molecular Microbiology
Lab website address
www.pathogenomics.bham.ac.uk
Research interests reflect background as dually qualified physician/scientist (MD/PhD) and span bioinformatics, genomics and hypothesis-driven research in bacteriology. Long-standing interest in bacterial genomics (as evidenced by involvement in numerous genome-sequencing projects), with focus on building bioinformatics pipelines and databases to facilitate comparative genomics of bacteria. Recent efforts have been centred on handling high-throughput sequence data, particularly for genomic epidemiology of bacterial pathogens and on the establishment of a local 454 sequencing capability. Research on bacterial type-III secretion systems encompasses bioinformatics (particularly use of homology searching to study evolution and illuminate protein function) and laboratory-based work on type III secretion in Escherichia coli.
Total cumulative research funding to date as PI and coapplicant: >£6 million.
Other activities
Mark is author of The Rough Guide to Evolution, a popular and wide-ranging introduction to Charles Darwin, the theory of evolution and their ramifications in science and society. Mark has also acted as instigator/adviser to The Rap Guide to Evolution by Baba Brinkman, an award-winning celebration of Darwin's legacy through hip-hop.
Mark has also have appeared on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pldm
Publications