Dr Brian Robertson (external speaker)- Building a Human Challenge Model for Tuberculosis

Dr Brian Robertson is currently Reader in Systems Microbiology in the Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, and part of the Medical Research Council Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection. Brian has a BSc (1985) in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD (1988) in Parasitology from Imperial College on the helminth parasite Toxocara canis, which is when he first met Professor Stephen Gillespie, publishing 2 papers together. He then spent 5 years at the Max-Planck Institut für Biologie in Tübingen, Germany working on LPS biosynthesis in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. On his return to Imperial College London in 1993 he started work on mycobacteria, looking at a range of projects including the development of bioluminescent and fluorescent reporters for in vivo use, trehalose biosynthesis, mycobacterial growth and division, encapsulated drugs and antimicrobial peptides. Brian is Editor in Chief of the journal "Tuberculosis".