Professor Steve Busby FRS

School of Biosciences
Professor of Biochemistry

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5439
Email: s.j.w.busby@bham.ac.uk

Address: W111, School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Research in Steve Busby’s lab is concerned with understanding the molecular mechanisms that control gene expression in bacteria, with particular attention to studying the regulation of transcription initiation in Escherichia coli. Much of the recent work has focussed on the expression of virulence determinants in pathogenic strains.

Qualifications

BA 1972 University of Cambridge, Natural Sciences
DPhil 1975 University of Oxford

Teaching

Steve teaches on undergraduate courses at all levels. His biggest contributions are to a second year course on bacterial genes and genomes, and a third year course on bacterial gene regulation. He is currently the Coordinator for the School’s Taught Masters and MRes Programmes.

Other activities

Vice Chair then Chair of the Biochemical Society (2011-2016)

Head of University of Birmingham School of Biosciences (2012-2016)

Member of BBSRC Committee E (Fellowships)

During the past 2 years, Steve gave invited lectures at: Solihull 6^th Form College (Biology Dept); University of Manchester Leaders in Science Lecture (Faculty of Life Sciences); University of Warwick (Division of Microbiology & Infection); University of Oxford (Synthetic Circuit Design MSc);Oundle School 6^th Form (Evening Lecture Series); University of Birmingham (Biosciences Evening Lecture series); Concord College, Shrewsbury (Readers and Writers Festival); West Midlands Guild of Graduates Evening Lecture; Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Harwell); NCBS Molecular Biology (Bangalore); ASE Annual Meeting (Birmingham); University of Salford (Health Forum); University of Marburg (Microbiology); Loyola University Medical School (Chicago); UAM Cuernavaca (Bioinformatics); Denbigh High School (Milton Keynes); NUS Mechanobiology Institute (Singapore)

During the past 24 months, Steve spoke at the following international meetings: Synthetic Biology in Action Course (EMBO Lab Heidelberg); 13^th FASEB meeting on Bacterial Transcription (Vermont, USA); 77^th Harden Conference on 2-component signaling in bacteria (Chesford Grange, Warwickshire); M4 Midland Microbiology Meeting (Nottingham); 7^th Sunny Forum (Sun-Yat Sen University, Guangzhou); Indian Institute of Science-MCB75 Meeting (Bangalore); ASM Annual Meeting Microbe 2016 (Boston, USA); Microbiology Society Annual Meeting Marjory Stephenson Lecture (Edinburgh); BIOTEC2017 Plenary Lecture (Murcia, Spain); 14^th FASEB meeting on Bacterial Transcription (Vermont, USA)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Alhammadi, MM, Hothersall, J, Lloyd, GS, Titman, SV, Guest, T, Browning, DF, Grainger, DC, Busby, SJW & Haycocks, JRJ 2025, 'Genome- wide mapping of cAMP receptor protein binding in enteroaggregative Escherichia coli reveals targeting of virulence- associated genes', Microbiology, vol. 171, no. 8, 001592. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001592

Browning, DF, Hobman, JL & Busby, SJW 2023, 'Laboratory strains of Escherichia coli K-12: things are seldom what they seem', Microbial Genomics, vol. 9, no. 2, 000922. https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000922

Otoničar, J, Hostnik, M, Grundner, M, Kostanjšek, R, Gredar, T, Garvas, M, Arsov, Z, Podlesek, Z, Gostinčar, C, Jakše, J, Busby, SJW & Butala, M 2022, 'A method for targeting a specified segment of DNA to a bacterial microorganelle', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 50, no. 19, e113. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac714

Blair, JMA, Siasat, P, McNeil, HE, Colclough, A, Ricci, V, Lawler, AJ, Abdalaal, H, Buckner, MMC, Baylay, A, Busby, SJ & Piddock, LJV 2022, 'EnvR is a potent repressor of acrAB transcription in Salmonella', Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkac364

Hothersall, J, Lai, S, Zhang, N, Godfrey, R, Ruanto, P, Bischoff, S, Robinson, C, Overton, T, Busby, S & Browning, D 2022, 'Inexpensive protein overexpression driven by the NarL transcription activator protein', Biotechnology and Bioengineering, vol. 119, no. 6, pp. 1614-1623. https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.28071

Hothersall, J, Osgerby, A, Godfrey, R, Overton, T, Busby, S & Browning, D 2022, 'New vectors for urea-inducible recombinant protein production', New Biotechnology, vol. 72, pp. 89-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2022.10.003

Alhammadi, MM, Godfrey, RE, Ingram, JO, Singh, G, Bathurst, CL, Busby, SJW & Browning, DF 2022, 'Novel organisation and regulation of the pic promoter from enteroaggregative and uropathogenic Escherichia coli', Virulence, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1393-1406. https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2022.2111754

Abdelwahab, R, Alhammadi, MM, Hassan, EA, Ahmed, EH, Abu-faddan, NH, Daef, EA, Busby, SJW & Browning, DF 2021, 'Antimicrobial Resistance and Comparative Genome Analysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae Strains Isolated in Egypt', Microorganisms, vol. 9, no. 9, 1880. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9091880

Hothersall, J, Godfrey, R, Fanitsios, C, Overton, T, Busby, S & Browning, D 2021, 'The PAR promoter expression system: modified lac promoters for controlled recombinant protein production in Escherichia coli', New Biotechnology, vol. 64, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2021.05.001

Ruanto, P, Chismon, DJ, Hothersall, J, Godfrey, RE, Lee, DJ, Busby, SJW & Browning, DF 2020, 'Activation by NarL at the Escherichia coli ogt promoter', The Biochemical journal, vol. 477, no. 15, pp. 2807-2820. https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20200408

Écija-Conesa, A, Gallego-Jara, J, Lozano Terol, G, Browning, DF, Busby, SJW, Wolfe, AJ, Cánovas Díaz, M & de Diego Puente, T 2020, 'An ideal spacing is required for the control of Class II CRP-dependent promoters by the status of CRP K100', FEMS Microbiology Letters, vol. 367, no. 20. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnaa164

Abdelwahab, R, Yasir, M, Godfrey, RE, Christie, GS, Element, SJ, Saville, F, Hassan, EA, Ahmed, EH, Abu-Faddan, NH, Daef, EA, Busby, SJW & Browning, DF 2020, 'Antimicrobial resistance and gene regulation in Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli from Egyptian children with diarrhoea: similarities and differences', Virulence, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 57-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2020.1859852

Mejía-Almonte, C, Busby, SJW, Helden, JV, Arkin, AP, Stormo, GD, Eilbeck, K, Palsson, BO, Galagan, JE & Collado-Vides, J 2020, 'Redefining fundamental concepts of transcription initiation in bacteria', Nature Reviews Genetics, vol. 21, no. 11, pp. 699-714. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0254-8

Comment/debate

Busby, SJW 2021, 'RNA polymerase spoiled for choice as transcription begins', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 30, e2110640118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2110640118

Review article

Busby, SJW & Browning, DF 2024, 'Transcription activation in Escherichia coli and Salmonella', EcoSal Plus, vol. 12, no. 1, eesp-0039-2020. https://doi.org/10.1128/ecosalplus.esp-0039-2020

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Bacterial genomes: particularly genes that enable bacteria to survive in stressful habitats and genes that make bacteria dangerous to humans

Alternative contact number available for this expert: contact the press office

Expertise

bacterial genomes; genes that enable bacteria to survive in stressful habitats; genes that make bacteria dangerous to humans;

bacteria and their effects; molecular mechanisms that make life; organisation of UK Science; biophysics and biochemistry

Alternative contact number available for this expert: contact the press office