Background

Wendy is a member of the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Biosystems group and a senior research associate based in the Synthetic Biology wet lab in the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB), Newcastle University.

Wendy studied Medical Microbiology at Newcastle University and her PhD thesis was entitled ‘A functional genomic analysis of group A streptococcal virulence factors’. Her initial research involved investigating the mechanisms of pathogenicity utilized by the Gram-positive bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes, with specific emphasis on the structure, assembly and role of pili and sortases.

Wendy first encountered the concept of ‘Synthetic Biology’ at local seminars and recognised that this was a new and ‘exciting’ area which she wanted to be involved in. Wendy has now been working on projects in this field since June 2010. Her current work involves developing systems for monitoring and measuring the metabolic load imposed on Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli chassis when synthetic parts/systems are integrated into them. Recently, she has also worked on synthetic quorum peptide mediated communication systems in B. subtilis.

Publications

• Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Mitchell AM, Smith W, Wipat A, Ofiteru ID. Heterogeneity in pure microbial systems: Experimental measurements and modeling. Frontiers in Microbiology 2017, 8, 1813.
• Harwood CR, Pohl S, Smith W, Wipat A. Bacillus subtilis: Model Gram-Positive Synthetic Biology Chassis. In: Colin Harwood and Anil Wipat, ed. Microbial Synthetic Biology. Oxford: Academic Press, 2013, pp.87-117.
• Misirli G, Wipat A, Mullen J, James K, Pocock M, Smith W, Allenby N, Hallinan J. BacillOndex: An Integrated Data Resource for Systems and Synthetic Biology. Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics 2013, 10(2), 224.
• Bell S, Howard A, Wilson JA, Abbot EL, Smith WD, Townes CL, Hirst BH, Hall J. Streptococcus pyogenes infection of tonsil explants is associated with a human β-defensin 1 response from control but not recurrent acute tonsillitis patients. Molecular Oral Microbiology 2012, 27(3), 160-171.
• Faulds-Pain A, Birchall C, Aldridge C, Smith WD, Grimaldi G, Nakamura S, Miyata T, Gray J, Li GL, Tang JX, Namba K, Minamino T, Aldridge PD. Flagellin Redundancy in Caulobacter crescentus and Its Implications for Flagellar Filament Assembly. Journal of Bacteriology 2011, 193(11), 2695-2707.
• Pointon JA, Smith WD, Saalbach G, Crow A, Kehoe MA, Banfield MJ. A Highly Unusual Thioester Bond in a Pilus Adhesin Is Required for Efficient Host Cell Interaction. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2010, 285(44), 33858-33866.
• Smith WD, Pointon JA, Abbot E, Kang HJ, Baker EN, Hirst BH, Wilson JA, Banfield MJ, Kehoe MA. Roles of Minor Pilin Subunits Spy0125 and Spy0130 in the Serotype M1 Streptococcus pyogenes Strain SF370. Journal of Bacteriology 2010, 192(18), 4651-4659.
• Solovyova AS, Pointon JA, Race PR, Smith WD, Kehoe MA, Banfield MJ. Solution structure of the major (Spy0128) and minor (Spy0125 and Spy0130) pili subunits from Streptococcus pyogenes. European Biophysics Journal 2010, 39(3), 469-480.
• Race PR, Bentley ML, Melvin JA, Crow A, Hughes RK, Smith WD, Sessions RB, Kehoe MA, McCafferty DG, Banfield MJ. Crystal structure of Streptococcus pyogenes sortase A: implications for sortase mechanism. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2009, 284(11), 6924-6933.
• Abbot EL, Smith WD, Pointon JA, Chiriboga C, Wilson JA, Hirst BH, Kehoe MA. Specificity of epithelial cell adhesion by Group A Streptococcus pilus proteins in the M1 serotype SF370 strain. In: FASEB JOURNAL. 2008, 9650 ROCKVILLE PIKE, BETHESDA, MD 20814-3998 USA: FEDERATION AMER SOC EXP BIOL.
• Abbot EL, Smith WD, Siou GPS, Chiriboga C, Smith RJ, Wilson JA, Hirst BH, Kehoe MA. Pili mediate specific adhesion of Streptococcus pyogenes to human tonsil and skin. Cellular Microbiology 2007, 9(7), 1822-1833.
• Siou GPS, Smith W, Kehoe MA, Hirst BH, Wilson JA. Do streptococcal fimbriae play a role in bacterial tonsillitis?. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 2005, 87(6), 482-482.