Senior Lecturer
I joined the University of Sunderland in 2023 as a Senior Lecturer in Genomics. After my PhD in Molecular Microbiology I moved to industry and have led teams involved in natural product drug discovery. I was Principal Scientist at a spin-out company called Demuris Ltd for over 10 years. I have also worked for Odyssey Therapeutics and Bactobio Ltd. My research focus is on antibiotic discovery and genomics.
Teaching and supervision
I teach BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science mainly in the areas of genetics and genomics.
Research
I have a wide range of interests from genomics to drug discovery. As the technology improves, I am increasingly interested in the metagenomics of soil using long-read Oxford Nanopore sequencing. I am also interested in isolating novel bacteria using tools such as the iChip.
Publications
Article
Kepplinger, Bernhard, Wen, Xin, Tyler, Andrew Robert, Kim, Byung-Yong, Brown, James, Banks, Peter, Dashti, Yousef, Mackenzie, Eilidh Sohini, Wills, Corinne, Kawai, Yoshikazu, Waldron, Kevin John, Allenby, Nick, Wu, Ling Juan, Hall, Michael John and Errington, Jeff (2022) Mirubactin C rescues the lethal effect of cell wall biosynthesis mutations in Bacillus subtilis. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13. ISSN 1664-302X
Kepplinger, Bernhard, Mardiana, Lina, Cowell, Joseph, Morton-Laing, Stephanie, Dashti, Yousef, Wills, Corinne, Marrs, Emma C. L., Perry, John D., Gray, Joe, Goodfellow, Michael, Errington, Jeff, Probert, Michael R., Clegg, William, Bogaerts, Jonathan, Herrebout, Wouter, Allenby, Nick and Hall, Michael J. (2022) Discovery, isolation, heterologous expression and mode-of-action studies of the antibiotic polyketide tatiomicin from Amycolatopsis sp. DEM30355. Scientific Reports, 12 (1). ISSN 2045-2322
Chandler, David John, Watson, Andrew Keith, Kepplinger, Bernhard, Bakhiet, Sahar Mubarak, Mhmoud, Najwa Adam, Chapman, Jonathan, Allenby, Nick, Mickiewicz, Katarzyna, Goodfellow, Michael, Fahal, Ahmed Hassan and Errington, Jeff (2022) Systematic whole-genome sequencing reveals an unexpected diversity among actinomycetoma pathogens and provides insights into their antibacterial susceptibilities. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16 (7). e0010128. ISSN 1935-2735
Lewis, Richard Alexander, Devi, Jenileima, Green, Katherine, Li, Juanjuan, Hopkins, Adam, Hayles, Jacqueline, Nurse, Paul, Errington, Jeff and Allenby, Nick (2021) Screening and Purification of Natural Products from Actinomycetes that Induce a “Rounded” Morphological Phenotype in Fission Yeast. Natural Products and Bioprospecting, 11 (4). pp. 431-445. ISSN 2192-2195
Harbottle, John, Mosaei, Hamed, Allenby, Nick and Zenkin, Nikolay (2021) Kanglemycin A Can Overcome Rifamycin Resistance Caused by ADP-Ribosylation by Arr Protein. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 65 (12). ISSN 0066-4804
Al-Sheikh, Ahmed, Begum, Masuma, Zhang, Bian, Lewis, Richard A., Allenby, Nick, Waddell, Paul G. and Golding, Bernard T. (2020) Molecular Diversity via Tetrasubstituted Alkenes Containing a Barbiturate Motif: Synthesis and Biological Activity. Molecules, 25 (24). p. 5868. ISSN 1420-3049
Ward, AC and Allenby, Nick (2018) Genome mining for the search and discovery of bioactive compounds: The Streptomyces paradigm. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 365 (24). ISSN 1574-6968
Mosaei, Hamed, Molodtsov, Vadim, Kepplinger, Bernhard, Harbottle, John, Moon, Christopher William, Jeeves, Rose Elizabeth, Ceccaroni, Lucia, Shin, Yeonoh, Morton-Laing, Stephanie, Marrs, Emma Claire Louise, Wills, Corinne, Clegg, William, Yuzenkova, Yulia, Perry, John David, Bacon, Joanna, Errington, Jeff, Allenby, Nick, Hall, Michael John, Murakami, Katsuhiko S. and Zenkin, Nikolay (2018) Mode of Action of Kanglemycin A, an Ansamycin Natural Product that Is Active against Rifampicin-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Molecular Cell, 72 (2). 263-274.e5. ISSN 1097-2765
Emami, K, Guyet, A, Kawai, Y, Devi, J, Wu, LJ, Allenby, Nick, Daniel, RA and Errington, J (2017) RodA as the missing glycosyltransferase in Bacillus subtilis and antibiotic discovery for the peptidoglycan polymerase pathway. Nature microbiology, 2 (16253). ISSN 2058-5276
Baksh, A, Kepplinger, B, Isah, HA, Probert, MR, Clegg, W, Wills, C, Goodfellow, M, Errington, J, Allenby, Nick and Hall, MJ (2016) Production of 17-O-demethyl-geldanamycin, a cytotoxic ansamycin polyketide, by Streptomyces hygroscopicus DEM20745. Natural Product Research, 31 (16). ISSN 1478-6419
G, Misirli, A, Wipat, J, Mullen, K, James, M, Pocock, W, Smith, Allenby, Nick and JS, Hallinan (2013) BacillOndex: an integrated data resource for systems and synthetic biology. Journal of integrative bioinformatics, 10 (2). pp. 103-116. ISSN 1613-4516
Allenby, Nick, Laing, E, Bucca, G, Kierzek, AM and Smith, CP (2012) Diverse control of metabolism and other cellular processes in Streptomyces coelicolor by the PhoP transcription factor: genome-wide identification of in vivo targets. Nucleic acids research, 40 (19). pp. 9543-9556. ISSN 0305-1048
Lewis, RA, Laing, E, Allenby, Nick, Bucca, G, Brenner, V, Harrison, M, Kierzek, AM and Smith, CP (2010) Metabolic and evolutionary insights into the closely-related species Streptomyces coelicolor and Streptomyces lividans deduced from high-resolution comparative genomic hybridization. BMC genomics, 11 (682). ISSN 1471-2164
Bucca, Giselda, Laing, Emma, Mersinias, Vassilis, Allenby, Nick, Hurd, Douglas, Holdstock, Jolyon, Brenner, Volker, Harrison, Marcus and Smith, Colin P. (2009) Development and application of versatile high density microarrays for genome-wide analysis of Streptomyces coelicolor: characterization of the HspR regulon. Genome biology, 10 (R5). ISSN 1474-760X
Allenby, Nick, Watts, Carys A., Homuth, Georg, Prágai, Zoltán, Wipat, Anil, Ward, Alan C. and Harwood, Colin R. (2006) Phosphate starvation induces the sporulation killing factor of Bacillus subtilis. Journal of Bacteriology, 188 (14). pp. 5229-5303. ISSN 0021-9193
Allenby, Nick, O'Connor, Nicola, Prágai, Zoltán, Ward, Alan C., Wipat, Anil and Harwood, Colin R. (2005) Genome-wide transcriptional analysis of the phosphate starvation stimulon of Bacillus subtilis. Journal of Bacteriology, 187 (23). pp. 8063-8080. ISSN 0021-9193
Allenby, Nick, O'Connor, Nicola, Prágai, Zoltán, Carter, Noel M., Miethke, Marcus, Engelmann, Susanne, Hecker, Michael, Wipat, Anil, Ward, Alan C. and Harwood, Colin R. (2004) Post-transcriptional regulation of the Bacillus subtilis pst operon encoding a phosphate-specific ABC transporter. Microbiology, 150 (8). pp. 2619-2628. ISSN 1350-0872
Prágai, Zoltán, Allenby, Nick, O'Connor, Nicola, Dubrac, Sarah, Rapoport, Georges, Msadek, Tarek and Harwood, Colin R. (2004) Transcriptional regulation of the phoPR operon in Bacillus subtilis. Journal of bacteriology, 186 (4). pp. 1182-1190. ISSN 0021-9193
- Genomics – whole genome sequencing/metagenomics
- Natural product discovery
- Heterologous expression of natural products