Sarah Coulthurst a molecular bacteriologist and Professor of Microbial Interactions at the University of Dundee, UK. Her research focuses increasing understanding of how bacteria can cause disease, and how this information can eventually lead to new medical treatments.

Education

Sarah J. Coulthurst gained an integrated four year Natural Sciences master's degree, specialising in biochemistry, from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, UK. Her Master's project, working with Peter F. Leadlay, was on polyketide syntheses, enzymes that are involved in the synthesis of many antibiotics and other natural products. This experience changed her plans from intending to take up medicine to follow a research career in microbiology that would allow her to have an impact on human health. She decided to take a PhD and studied bacterial communication through the phenomenon of quorum sensing with George P. C. Salmond.

Career

Coulthurst's research uses the bacterial species ''Serratia marcescens'' to study competition and co-operation among bacterial species. Her research focuses on

type VI secretion system The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is molecular machine used by a wide range of Gram-negative bacterial species to transport effectors from the interior (cytoplasm or cytosol) of a bacterial cell across the cellular envelope into an adjacent targe ...

s for injection of proteins into other bacteria, frequently toxic proteins in antagonistic interactions. Her research group has shown that some bacteria can also use this system against fungal competitors. This secretion system involves a large contractile protein nanostructure, and bacteria may have immunity proteins to protect themselves against their own toxic proteins. After gaining her doctorate, she stayed with Salmond's group as a post-doctoral fellow and then moved to University of Dundee to work with Frank Sargent on bacterial protein movement. Then in around 2009, with funding from the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

and a Scottish Government Personal Research Fellowship, she formed her own research group at Dundee into the type VI secretion system of Gram-negative bacteria. She was promoted to a personal chair in January 2021.

Awards

From 2011 to 2016 Coulthurst was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy. In 2015 she was awarded the World Cultural Council Special Recognition Diploma and also a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, renewed in 2020. In 2018 Coulthurst was awarded the Fleming Prize by the Microbiology Society for her work with the

of bacteria within 12 years of the award of her doctorate and also the

Society for Applied Microbiology Applied Microbiology International, formally known as the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM), is the oldest microbiology society in the UK founded in 1931. Its object is to advance for the benefit of the public the science of microbiology in ...

W. H. Pierce Prize and the Royal Society of Edinburgh Patrick Neill Medal.

Publications

Coulthurst is the author or co-author of over 70 scientific publications. These include: * FR Cianfanelli, L Monlezun, SJ Coulthurst (2016) Aim, load, fire: the type VI secretion system, a bacterial nanoweapon. ''Trends in Microbiology'' 24 51-62 * Hui Liu, Sarah J. Coulthurst, Leighton Pritchard, Peter E. Hedley, Michael Ravensdale, Sonia Humphris, Tom Burr, Gunnhild Takle, May-Bente Brurberg, Paul R. J. Birch, George P. C. Salmond, Ian K. Toth (2008
Quorum sensing coordinates brute force and stealth modes of infection in the plant pathogen ''Pectobacterium atrosepticum''.
''PLoS Pathogens'' 4 (6) e1000093 * Sarah J. Coulthurst, Anne M. L. Barnard & George P. C. Salmond (2005) Regulation and biosynthesis of carbapenem antibiotics in bacteria. ''Nature Reviews Microbiology'' 3 295–306 * Sarah J Coulthurst, Neil A Whitehead, Martin Welch, George P.C Salmond (2002) Can boron get bacteria talking? ''Trends in Biochemical Sciences'' 27 (5) 217-219

Personal life

Coulthurst has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coulthurst, Sarah Living people Year of birth missing (living people) British microbiologists Academics of the University of Dundee Alumni of the University of Cambridge Women molecular biologists 21st-century British biologists 21st-century British women scientists British bacteriologists