Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Gurdyal Besra heads a world-leading multidisciplinary team investigating key aspects of the microbial physiology of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall and the potential role of iNKT/CD1d therapeutics.

Professor Besra’s team has contributed over the past several years to increased understanding of the characteristics of the cell wall of TB, which has been the site of action of a number of front-line TB agents. They have now opted for a broader strategy: identification of new drug targets and drug development; vaccine development; identification of mechanisms of intracellular survival, replication and pathogenesis; definition of the fundamental genome of the tubercle bacillus, its phenotype and the functionality of the phenotypic characteristics through derivation of mutants. It is a widely held view that efforts to relieve the disease burden imposed by tuberculosis must benefit from concerted attempts to understand the basic biochemistry of the organism, particularly in view of the current availability of genomic data from the M. tuberculosis genome. Thus, Professor Besra's research provides a timely insight into these remarkable bacteria and novel areas of mycobacterial cell wall physiology.