Membrane Transport in Living Systems

Pagliara Group

Tweets by @PagliaraExeter

Research Overview

Our research is focused on understanding how microbial cells interact with their environment both as a community and as individual cells with an emphasis of membrane transporter regulation. Besides standard microbiology techniques and omics approaches, we develop bespoke microfluidic devices that enable to accurately control the microenvironment surrounding the cells and perform a series of functional assays on the very same individual cell. This allows us to shed light on the physiology of rare subpopulations of cells that are generally hidden in ensemble measurements on clonal populations. We apply the technology we develop for collaborative studies on antimicrobial resistance, bacterial physiology, ageing in unicellular organisms and stem cell differentiation.

Recent publications

1. M. Kellom, S. Pagliara, T. A. Richards, A. E. Santoro
   

   Exaggerated trans-membrane charge of ammonium transporters in nutrient-poor marine environments

   Open Biology 12, 220041 (2022) [Link][PDF]
   
2. U. Łapińska, Ma. Voliotis, K. K. Lee, A. Campey, M. R. L. Stone, B. Tuck, W. Phetsang, B. Zhang, K. Tsaneva-Atanasova, M. A. T. Blaskovich, S. Pagliara
   

   Fast bacterial growth reduces antibiotic accumulation and efficacy

   eLife 11, e74062 (2022) [Link][PDF]
   
3. G. Glover, M. Voliotis, U. Łapińska, B. M. Invergo, D. Soanes, P. O'Neill, K. Moore, N. Nikolic, P. G. Petrov, D. S. Milner, S. Roy, K. Heesom, T. A. Richards, K. Tsaneva-Atanasova, S. Pagliara
   

   Nutrient and salt depletion synergistically boosts glucose metabolism in individual Escherichia coli cells

   Communications Biology 5, 385 (2022) [Link][PDF]
   
4. J. Cama, K. Al Nahas, M. Fletcher, K. Hammond, M. G. Ryadnov, U. F. Keyser, S. Pagliara
   

   An ultrasensitive microfluidic approach reveals correlations between the physico-chemical and biological activity of experimental peptide antibiotics

   Scientific Reports 12, 4005 (2022) [Link][PDF]
   
5. T. Dimitriu, E. Kurilovich, U. Łapińska, K. Severinov, S. Pagliara, M. Szczelkun, E. Westra
   

   Bacteriostatic antibiotics promote CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity by enabling increased spacer acquisition

   Cell Host and Microbe 30, 31 (2022) [Link][PDF]