Professor David Grainger PhD

School of Biosciences
Professor of Molecular Microbiology

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5437
Fax: +44 (0)121 414 5925
Email: d.grainger@bham.ac.uk

Address: W127, School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Grainger is an expert in the field of bacterial chromosome biology. He relocated his laboratory to the University of Birmingham in March 2011 having previously established a successful research group at the University of Warwick. He is a life-long supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and attributes his capacity to cope with the frequent disappointments that befall a research scientist to this.

Website: www.graingerlab.com

Qualifications

PhD (University of Birmingham)
PGCE (University of Wolverhampton)
BSc (University of Birmingham)

Biography

David’s first degree (Biochemistry) was awarded by the University of Birmingham in 1999. Following this, David trained as a teacher at the University of Wolverhampton (2000). Keen to reengage with the cutting edge research that he had been exposed to as an undergraduate, David returned to Birmingham to complete his PhD studies (2004). Employment as a post-doctoral research associate followed. During this time David developed the use of high-throughput techniques to map gene regulatory events in bacteria.

In 2008 David was awarded a prestigious Career Development Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust and used this grant to set up his research group at the University of Warwick. During this time David established collaborations with biophysical scientists and began studying DNA and its interactions at the single-molecule level.

In 2011 David relocated his research group to Birmingham. His current research is focused on deciphering the chromosome biology of pathogenic bacteria.

Teaching

David teaches the bacterial cell cycle (Bio317), microbial genomics (BioM25 & BioM13) and research developments (BioM26). He is module lead on BioM25: "omics of pathogens".

Postgraduate supervision

David is always keen to welcome enthusiastic individuals to the lab. Contact him directly to discuss projects currently available. Details of funding available for PhD students in Birmingham are available here.

Research

Research Theme within School of Biosciences: Molecular Microbiology

Website: www.graingerlab.com

Bacterial chromosome biology, pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance mechanisms; high-throughput analysis of DNA binding events; single molecule analysis

Work in David’s laboratory is focused on understanding the biology of bacterial chromosomes. Consequently, he is interested in a broad range of biological processes that directly require the interaction of DNA with other cellular machinery. His current research interests include understanding how i) gene regulation is managed on a chromosome-wide scale ii) pathogens control the production of toxins and iii) molecular pathways to multiple antibiotic resistance.

Other activities

David is keen to engage with the public on scientific topics and was recently a runner up in the “science snaps” competition that utilised scientific imagery to arouse public interest in the sciences. David's laboratory run a Twitter feed where they discuss current issues in science. Take a look and find out what life is like in the Grainger lab!

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Klimova, KM, Forrest, D, Sharma, P, Haycocks, JRJ & Grainger, DC 2026, 'Activation of bacterial transcription by distortion of promoter base pairing', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 54, no. 1, gkaf1424. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf1424

Warman, EA, Forrest, D, Stringer, AM, Wade, JT & Grainger, DC 2026, 'Bidirectional promoters in Escherichia coli: regulatory rules and implications for gene expression noise', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 54, no. 3, gkag028. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkag028

Forrest, D, Warman, EA & Grainger, DC 2026, 'The bacterial RNA polymerase-associated CarD protein couples promoter activity to DNA supercoiling', Nature Communications, vol. 17, no. 1, 2295. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69038-3

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

Alhammadi, MM, Hothersall, J, Lloyd, GS, Titman, SV, Guest, T, Browning, DF, Grainger, DC, Busby, SJW & Haycocks, JRJ 2025, 'Genome-wide mapping of cyclic AMP receptor protein binding in Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli reveals targeting of virulence-associated genes.', bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.09.652842

Trebino, MA, Kitts, G, Haycocks, JRJ, Wheat, R, Chaudry, I, Park, JH, Erill, I, Grainger, DC & Yildiz, FH 2025, 'Parallel regulatory circuits orchestrate biofilm formation in response to c-di-GMP levels and growth phase', PLoS Genetics, vol. 21, no. 9, e1011870. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011870

Wang, A, Fletcher, A, Mukherjee, P, Grainger, DC, Mazumder, A & Kapanidis, AN 2025, 'The displacement of the σ70 finger in initial transcription is highly heterogeneous and promoter-dependent', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 53, no. 17. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf857

Cooper, C, Legood, S, Wheat, RL, Forrest, D, Sharma, P, Haycocks, JRJ & Grainger, DC 2024, 'H-NS is a bacterial transposon capture protein', Nature Communications, vol. 15, 7137. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51407-5

Middlemiss, AD, Warman, EA, Forrest, D, Haycocks, JRJ & Grainger, DC 2023, 'An unexpected abundance of bidirectional promoters within Salmonella Typhimurium plasmids', Microbiology, vol. 169, no. 5, 001339. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001339

Walker, LM, Haycocks, JRJ, Van Kessel, JC, Dalia, TN, Dalia, AB & Grainger, DC 2023, 'A simple mechanism for integration of quorum sensing and cAMP signalling in Vibrio cholerae', eLife, vol. 12, RP86699. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.86699

Middlemiss, AD, Haycocks, JRJ, Stringer, AM, Piddock, LJV, Wade, JT & Grainger, DC 2023, 'Mapping direct and indirect MarA/SoxS/Rob/RamA regulons in Salmonella Typhimurium reveals repression of csgD and biofilm formation', Microbiology, vol. 169, no. 5, 001330. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001330

Rashid, F-ZM, Crémazy, FGE, Hofmann, A, Forrest, D, Grainger, DC, Heermann, DW & Dame, RT 2023, 'The environmentally-regulated interplay between local three-dimensional chromatin organisation and transcription of proVWX in E. coli', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 7478. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43322-y

Guest, T, Haycocks, JRJ, Warren, GZL & Grainger, DC 2022, 'Genome-wide mapping of Vibrio cholerae VpsT binding identifies a mechanism for c-di-GMP homeostasis', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab1194

Gopalkrishnan, S, Ross, W, Akbari, MS, Li, X, Haycocks, JRJ, Grainger, DC, Court, DL & Gourse, RL 2022, 'Homologs of the Escherichia coli F Element Protein TraR, Including Phage Lambda Orf73, Directly Reprogram Host Transcription', mBio, vol. 13, no. 3. https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00952-22

Editorial

Brockhurst, M, Cavet, J, Diggle, SP, Grainger, D, Mangenelli, R, Sychrova, H, Martin-Verstraete, I, Welch, M, Palmer, T & Thomas, GH 2023, 'Shaping microbiology for 75 years: highlights of research published in Microbiology. Part 2 - Communities and evolution', Microbiology (United Kingdom), vol. 169, no. 6, 001357. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001357

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