Professor Tim Overton BSc PhD

• PGCert in Learning & Teaching in HE, University of Birmingham, 2012
• PhD in Biochemistry, University of Birmingham, 2003
• BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry with Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Birmingham, 1999

Tim Overton is interested in the ways in which bacteria sense and respond to external stimuli, and how this translates to changes in physiology and behaviour. His research uses this information in three main areas:

• Understanding how biofilms form and how we can prevent this from happening;
• Improving processes where bacteria make useful products for us, such as insulin; and
• Killing bacteria using antibiotics and challenging antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Dr Overton trained as a biochemist (BSc and PhD) and then was a postdoctoral researcher, investigating bacteria responses to oxygen and various stresses. He became interested in bioprocessing of biopharmaceuticals during a project in collaboration with GSK, studying the production of difficult recombinant proteins in E. coli. 

Dr Overton took up a position in the School of Chemical Engineering and has built a research group studying how understanding of microbial physiology can be used to improve real-world situations, either by killing bacteria or keeping them alive. 

Dr Overton is Postgraduate Taught director in the School of Chemical Engineering. He is a school Wellbeing Champion and Mental Health First Aider. He is actively involved in biological safety (University Advisory Group on Biological Hazards, LES/EPS GM safety committee, School GMO safety officer).

He reviews widely for journals and funding bodies, having been on BBSRC committee D, and is currently a UKRI Talent and EPSRC Peer Review College member. He co-organises the Applied Synthetic Biology in Europe conference series (2012-date).   

• MEng/BEng Chemical Engineering
• MSc Advanced Chemical Engineering
• EngD Formulation Engineering

Teaching topics include basic biology and molecular biology, systems and synthetic biology, genomic technologies, fermentation and cell culture and analysis of microbial physiology. Dr Overton also supervises fermentation practicals at laboratory and pilot scale (~100 litres).

We are interested in how bacteria sense and respond to external stimuli, and how this translates to changes in physiology and behaviour. We focus on three main areas: • Understanding how biofilms form and how we can prevent this from happening; • Improving processes where bacteria make useful products for us, such as insulin; and • Killing bacteria using antibiotics and challenging antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Research is split into three main themes. In each theme we are interested in applying microbial physiology to solve real-world problems and optimise processes. We like to take multidisciplinary approaches and work with industry to do this.

Antibiotics and AMR

Antibiotics are essential for modern medicine, permitting treatment of infection and ensuring that invasive operations are safe. However, many bacteria are becoming more resistant to antibiotics, meaning that it is harder (or impossible) to kill them.  We are interested in the ways in which AMR is regulated, an in particular:

• The relationship between energy metabolism and AMR;
• How AMR and biofilm formation are linked; and
• How antibiotics get inside bacteria.

Bacterial biofilms

Bacteria form biofilms, communities of cells immobilised onto surfaces by secreted polymeric substances, in many settings. Biofilms are very difficult to prevent and remove from surfaces, and have massive impacts on human life (economic, health, societal, and environmental). Within this area we investigate several approaches to understand how biofilms form and how we can interact with them.

• Understanding how biofilm formation is driven by external stimuli;
• The links between biofilm formation and central metabolism; and
• Prevention of biofilm formation using vibration.

Bacteria for useful products

Microbes are used for the production of many high-value products in fermentation processes. We optimise these processes to increase yields, shorten development times and accelerate innovation in bioproduction. We have expertise in fermentation process development, intensification, and scale-up to bioreactors.

Current research focuses on recombinant protein production, centred around two main themes at present:

• Novel promoters for controlling recombinant protein production
• Improving periplasmic protein production

We are also working on formulation of probiotics for dairy applications.

Previous work has included production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in C. necator, and using magnetotactic bacteria to make useful magnetic nanoparticles, work which continues in a collaboration.

• Member of the European Federation of Biotechnology executive board
• Co-chair of the European Federation of Biotechnology Bioengineering & Bioprocessing section
• Organiser of Applied Synthetic Biology in Europe conference series
• Editorial board member for Biotechnology Letters
• Refereeing for BMC Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Letters, DNA Sequence, Powder Technology and the MRC and National Science Foundation
• Peer review for FEBS Letters, Biotechnology Letters, BMC Microbiology, BMC Research Notes, FEMS Microbiology Letters, Powder Technology and DNA Sequence.
• Grant application review for BBSRC, MRC and the National Science Foundation