Dr Apoorva Bhatt PhD, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Apoorva Bhatt

School of Biosciences
Associate Professor in Molecular Microbiology
Program Director, MSc Microbiology and Infection

Contact details

Address
N108, School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr.Bhatt leads a research group working on the molecular mechanisms of how pathogenic mycobacteria  build their lipidic cell envelope. He is also the Program Lead for the MSc Microbiology and Infection course.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Bacterial Genetics)
  • BSc and MSc (Microbiology)

Biography

Dr. Apoorva Bhatt did his PhD at the John Innes Centre in Streptomyces and mycobacterial genetics. He subsequently worked at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge and then at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York before heading his own research group at the School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham.

Teaching

Dr.Bhatt contributes to teaching for undergraduate as well a postgraduate taught courses

Postgraduate supervision

Dr.Bhatt’s supervises PhD students, and project students for MSc and MRes courses. For the PhD program, home students may apply through the annual MIBTP call for studentships. International students are also eligible to apply for the same, and for Darwin Trust of Edinburgh studentships. Please find more details here:

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/biosciences/courses/postgraduate/phd

Research

Dr.Bhatt’s research interests include studying pathogenic mycobacteria and how they cause disease with a particular focus on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), with a focus on mechanisms and regulation of cell wall biogenesis, and mycobacterial biofilms.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Cui, Y, Lanne, A, Peng, X, Browne, E, Bhatt, A, Coltman, NJ, Craven, P, Cox, LR, Cundy, NJ, Dale, K, Feula, A, Frampton, J, Fung, M, Morton, M, Goff, A, Salih, M, Lang, X, Li, X, Moon, C, Pascoe, J, Portman, V, Press, C, Schulz-Utermoehl, T, Lee, S, Tortorella, MD, Tu, Z, Underwood, ZE, Wang, C, Yoshizawa, A, Zhang, T, Waddell, SJ, Bacon, J, Alderwick, L, Fossey, JS & Neagoie, C 2024, 'Azetidines Kill Multidrug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis without Detectable Resistance by Blocking Mycolate Assembly', Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 2529-2548. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01643

Urtasun-Elizari, JM, Ma, R, Pickford, H, Farrell, D, Gonzalez, G, Perets, V, Nakajima, C, Suzuki, Y, MacHugh, DE, Bhatt, A & Gordon, SV 2024, 'Functional analysis of the Mycobacterium bovis AF2122/97 PhoPR system', Tuberculosis, vol. 148, pp. 102544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tube.2024.102544

Marton, HL, Bhatt, A, Sagona, AP, Kilbride, P & Gibson, MI 2024, 'Screening of Hydrophilic Polymers Reveals Broad Activity in Protecting Phages during Cryopreservation', Biomacromolecules, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 413-424. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.3c01042

Moolla, N, Weaver, H, Bailo, R, Singh, A, Bavro, VN & Bhatt, A 2024, 'The role of ABC transporter DrrABC in the export of PDIM in Mycobacterium tuberculosis', The Cell Surface, vol. 12, pp. 100132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcsw.2024.100132

Peterson, EJR, Brooks, AN, Reiss, DJ, Kaur, A, Do, J, Pan, M, Wu, W-J, Morrison, R, Srinivas, V, Carter, W, Arrieta-Ortiz, ML, Ruiz, RA, Bhatt, A & Baliga, NS 2023, 'MtrA modulates Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell division in host microenvironments to mediate intrinsic resistance and drug tolerance', Cell Reports, vol. 42, no. 8, pp. 112875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112875

Cooper, C, Peterson, EJR, Bailo, R, Pan, M, Singh, A, Moynihan, P, Nakaya, M, Fujiwara, N, Baliga, N & Bhatt, A 2022, 'MadR mediates acyl CoA-dependent regulation of mycolic acid desaturation in mycobacteria', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 119, no. 8, e2111059119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111059119

Bailo, R, Radhakrishnan, A, Singh, A, Nakaya, M, Fujiwara, N & Bhatt, A 2022, 'The mycobacterial desaturase DesA2 is associated with mycolic acid biosynthesis', Scientific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 6943. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10589-y

Sao Emani, C, Richter, A, Singh, A, Bhatt, A & Av-Gay, Y 2022, 'The ΔCysK2 mutant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is sensitive to vancomycin associated with changes in cell wall phospholipid profile', Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 624, pp. 120-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2022.07.096

Karlikowska, M, Singh, A, Bhatt, A, Ott, S, Bottrill, AR, Besra, GS & Fullam, E 2021, 'Biochemical and phenotypic characterisation of the Mycobacterium smegmatis transporter UspABC', The Cell Surface, vol. 7, 100052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcsw.2021.100052

Hariharan, VN, Yadav, R, Thakur, C, Singh, A, Gopinathan, R, Singh, DP, Sankhe, G, Malhotra, V, Chandra, N, Bhatt, A & Saini, DK 2021, 'Cyclic di-GMP sensing histidine kinase PdtaS controls mycobacterial adaptation to carbon sources', FASEB Journal, vol. 35, no. 4, e21475, pp. e21475. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202002537RR

Pouget, M, Coussens, AK, Ruggiero, A, Koch, A, Thomas, J, Besra, GS, Wilkinson, RJ, Bhatt, A, Pollakis, G & Paxton, WA 2021, 'Generation of liposomes to study the effect of mycobacterium tuberculosis lipids on HIV-1 cis- and trans-infections', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 22, no. 4, 1945, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22041945

Guan, Q, Garbati, M, Mfarrej, S, AlMutairi, T, Laval, T, Singh, A, Fagbo, S, Smyth, A, Browne, JA, urRahman, MA, Alruwaili, A, Hoosen, A, Meehan, CJ, Nakajima, C, Suzuki, Y, Demangel, C, Bhatt, A, Gordon, SV, AlAsmari, F & Pain, A 2021, 'Insights into the ancestry evolution of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex from analysis of Mycobacterium riyadhense', NAR genomics and bioinformatics, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. lqab070. https://doi.org/10.1093/nargab/lqab070

Borah, K, Mendum, TA, Hawkins, ND, Ward, JL, Beale, MH, Larrouy-Maumus, G, Bhatt, A, Moulin, M, Haertlein, M, Strohmeier, G, Pichler, H, Forsyth, VT, Noack, S, Goulding, CW, McFadden, J & Beste, DJV 2021, 'Metabolic fluxes for nutritional flexibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis', Molecular Systems Biology, vol. 17, no. 5, e10280, pp. e10280. https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.202110280

Dokic, A, Peterson, E, Arrieta-Ortiz, ML, Pan, M, Di Maio, A, Baliga, N & Bhatt, A 2021, 'Mycobacterium abscessus biofilms produce an extracellular matrix and have a distinct mycolic acid profile', The Cell Surface, vol. 7, 100051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcsw.2021.100051

Moolla, N, Bailo, R, Marshall, R, Bavro, VN & Bhatt, A 2021, 'Structure-function analysis of MmpL7-mediated lipid transport in mycobacteria', The Cell Surface, vol. 7, 100062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcsw.2021.100062

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