Vassilis Koronakis-has won a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award

Vassilis Koronakis, Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department's Molecular, Cellular and Structural Microbiology group, has won a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award

The award ‘Towards a high definition view of cytoskeleton remodelling by the bacterial pathogen Salmonella’ supports work in a relatively new area for Vassilis, building on his introduction of an innovative experimental approach to study mammalian membrane signalling platforms outside the cell, and his biochemical characterisation of pathogen effectors that subvert the host cell biology. It follows his similarly membrane-focussed work on bacterial toxin biogenesis, the TolC cell exit duct structure and the detailed structure and operation of cell membrane machines for protein export and multidrug efflux.
The Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Awards aim to 'support exceptional, world-class researchers who have demonstrated the originality and impact of their research, and who are leaders in their field', and 'provide flexible support to enable the best researchers to address the most important questions about health and disease'. The award to Professor Koronakis is for 7 years.
Recent publications

• Humphreys D, Davidson A, Hume PJ, Koronakis V. (2012) Salmonella virulence effector SopE and Host GEF ARNO cooperate to recruit and activate WAVE to trigger bacterial invasion. Cell Host Microbe 11:129-39
• Koronakis V, Hume PJ, Humphreys D, Liu T, Hørning, Jensen ON, McGhie EJ. (2011) WAVE regulatory complex activation by cooperating GTPasses Arf and Rac1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 108: 14449-54
• Smith K, Humphreys D, Hume PJ, Koronakis V (2010) Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli recruits the cellular inositolphosphatase SHIP2 to regulate actin-pedestal formation. Cell Host & Microbe 7:13-24.
• Symmons MF, Bokma E, Koronakis E, Hughes C, Koronakis V (2009) The assembled structure of a complete tripartite bacterial multidrug efflux pump. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 106: 7173-7178.