Dr Graham P. Stafford BSc(hons), PhD

Senior lecturer in Microbiology (non-clincical)
Member of the Integrated Biosciences group

Tel: 0114 271 7959
Fax: 0114 271 7863
Email: G.Stafford@sheffield.ac.uk

Group Webpage: http://www.stafford.group.shef.ac.uk/

Current PhD Opportunity:

The group has a fully funded (EU/UK level) project in the iBio and MDH faculty competitions, for which applications are now open. For more info and instructions on how to apply, follow links below:

iBio studentship advert

MDH faculty studentship

Also follow this link for more info: Stafford PhD Advert

Teaching:

DEN 103 The Human Body
DEN 104 The Oral Cavity in Health and Disease
DEN 303/4 Integrated Human Diseases
ORP 609 Laboratory Research Methods

Administrative roles

Member of the Local Genetic Modification Committee
Safety Rep and Academic lead for Molecular Biology facilities
Member of the Early Career Group
Member of MATEs synthetic biology network steering committee
PhD selector: iBio group

Research Interests

Also See The Group Webpage

Pathogenesis of periodontal bacteria
Much of my work is aimed at investigating the pathogenic mechanisms employed by oral bacteria such as the key periodontal pathogens Tannerella forsythia and Porphyromonas gingivalis and focuses on three main areas:

The role of sialic acid in T. forsythia-
My group recently identified that the important host sugar sialic acid can act as an alternative growth factor for this fastidious organism to promote biofilm growth. In continuing work we are aiming to fully characterize a novel sialic acid transport system that we identified and which a potential drug target (see diagram). The role of sialic acid in interactions of periodontal bacteria with host and bacterial cells is also being investigated.

Biofilms-
Progression of oral disease is often dependent upon the accumulation of oral plaque, a prime example of a bacterial biofilm. Biofilms are also important in other medical conditions, presenting a barrier to antibiotic treatment and contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance traits. I am interested in establishing the mechanisms involved in formation and progression of both mono- and mixed species oral biofilms with a focus on Tannerella forsythia, P. gingivalis, F. nucleatum and oral Campylobacter species.

Host cell interaction and responses-
There is increasing evidence that as part of their residence in the oral cavity several oral bacteria are capable of interaction and invasion of oral epithelial cells. We have several projects running examining various aspects of this phenomenon which follows on from our previous work identifying bistable invasive populations of P. gingivalis which revealed several genes putatively involved in the invasion process. I am also involved in a collaborative project with Dr Dan Lambert investigating how host cells modulate their immune response via microRNA molecules

Within the microbiology group we employ a variety of genetic and biochemical techniques while in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (MBB) we also apply a range of biophysical and proteomic techniques to answer key questions within the areas outlined above.

Synthetic Biology:

As part of the MATEs network and in collaboration with Professor Phillip Wright, Professor Sheila MacNeil and others in the Faculty of Engineering we have several areas of research in Synthetic Biology. We are investigating the possibility of exploiting bacterial protein secretion systems to produce biomedically important molecules and using naturally occurring bacterial adhesins as sources of sticky protein domains for applicaitons in Tissue Engineering.

Find out more by following these links:

http://www.stafford.group.shef.ac.uk/index.php/research-areas/synthetic-biology

http://www.synbio.group.shef.ac.uk/synbio/

Other areas:
Novel antimicrobials: With colleagues from Sheffield Hallam University and the Department of Chemistry in Sheffield we are also examining a number of potentially novel antimicrobials from plant sources.

Flagella glycosylation:

In collaboration with Dr Jon Shaw (Infection and Immunity, Sheffield) and Professor Phil Wright (ChelSi) we are looking into the mechanisms by which pathogenic bacteria glycosylate surface molecules including bacterial flagella.

Current members of the group

Dr Jennifer Parker - Postdoctoral Researcher (Jointly based in Dept of Infection and Immunity)
Dr Chatchawal Phansopa- Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr Prachi Stafford - Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr Matthew Hicks- Postdoctoral Researcher
Michael Spencer- BMedSci project student- starts September 2011
Former members of the group

Information for Prospective PhD Students: Also see Group webpage

There are a number of possible PhD projects and enquiries from prospective students are welcome. Click here for currently available project examples

Recently Published Papers (Since 2004): See Also

Settem, RJ, Al-Hassan, Honma, K, Stafford, GP and Sharma, A (2012) Fusobacterium nucleatum and Tannerella forsythia induce synergistic alveolar bone loss in a mouse periodontitis model Infection and Immunity In Press

Parker, JL, Day-Williams, MJ, Tomas, JM, Stafford, GP and Shaw, JG (2012) Identification of a putative glycosyltransferase responsible for the transfer of Pse onto the polar flagellin of A. caviae Sch3N Microbiology Open In Press.

Roy, S; Phansopa, C.; Stafford, P.; Honma, K.; Douglas, I.; Sharma, A. and Stafford G.P. (2012) Beta-hexosaminidase activity of the oral pathogen Tannerella forsythia influences biofilm formation on glycoprotein substrates FEMS Immun & Med Micro, epub

Roy S, Honma K, Douglas CWI, Sharma A and Stafford GP (2011) Role of sialidase in glycoprotein utiisation by Tannerella forsythia. Microbiology 157: 3195-3202.

Stafford, G.P., Roy, S., Honma, K. and Sharma, A. (2011) Sialic acid, periodontal pathogens and Tannerella forsythia: stick around and enjoy the feast! Molecular Oral Microbiology 27:11-22

Roy, S., Pham, T.K., Noirel, J., Douglas, I. Wright, P.C. & Stafford, G.P. (2010) A quantitative proteomic analysis of biofilm adaptation by the periodontal pathogen Tannerella forsythia. Proteomics 10: 3130–3141.Text link

Roy, S., Douglas, C.W.I. and Stafford G.P. (2010) A novel sialic acid utptake and utilisation system in the periodontal pathogen Tannerella forsythia J Bacteriol 192(9):2285-93.Text link

Suwannakul S., Stafford G.P., Whawell S.A., Douglas I. (2010) Identification of bistable populations of Porphyromonas gingivalis that differ in epithelial cell invasion. Microbiology156:3052-64.text link

Stafford, G. P., Evans, L.D.B., Krumscheid, R., Dhillon, P., Fraser, G. M. and Hughes, C. (2007) Sorting of early and late flagellar subunits after docking at the membrane ATPase of the type III export pathway. J Mol Biol 374 :877-82.Text link

Stafford,G.P., and Hughes,C. (2007) Salmonella typhimurium flhE, a conserved flagellar regulon gene required for swarming. Microbiology 153: 541-547.Text link

Evans,L.D., Stafford,G.P., Ahmed,S., Fraser,G.M., and Hughes,C. (2006) An escort mechanism for cycling of export chaperones during flagellum assembly. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103: 17474-17479.Text link

Stafford,G.P., Ogi,T., and Hughes,C. (2005) Binding and transcriptional activation of non-flagellar genes by the Escherichia coli flagellar master regulator FlhD2C2. Microbiology 151: 1779-1788.Text link

Thomas,J., Stafford,G.P., and Hughes,C. (2004) Docking of cytosolic chaperone-substrate complexes at the membrane ATPase during flagellar type III protein export. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101: 3945-3950.Text link

Funding: See Also

BBSRC

The Royal Society
Oral and Dental Research trust (GSK)
Society for General Microbiology
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
The Wellcome Trust
Dunhill Medical Trust

EPSRC Kickstart Fund

MRC DFPS

BBSRC-GSK

Collaborators outside the School

Dr Catherine Biggs- Dept of Chemical and Process Engineering
Dr Jon Shaw- Department of Infection and Immunity, Medical School
Professor Philip Wright - Dept of Chemical and Process Engineering
Dr Tom Smith - Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Ashu Sharma- Associate Professor, Department of Oral Biology
Dr Simon Jones, Dept of Chemistry