Fellow

Professor Gabriel Waksman is Courtauld Professor of Biochemistry at the Institute of Structural Molecular Biology at UCL. His earlier interests in prokaryotic DNA replication provided seminal insights in the structural basis of protein function in enzymes/proteins involved in DNA replication. In the last 10 years, Waksman has developed a programme in bacterial pathogenesis focused on understanding secretion mechanisms and the function of bacterial pili. He has provided definitive insights into the assembly of the “type IV” and “type V” secretion machineries. He has also elucidated the details of the donor-strand exchange mechanism and pilus termination. These studies have culminated in the discovery of a new compound capable of disrupting pilus biogenesis.