David Ackerley

I am a microbiologist and enzyme engineer, and my primary research focus is on discovery, characterisation, engineering and application of useful bacterial enzymes, and of novel antibiotics to counter the spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria. I have a particular interest in tailoring enzyme activities by directed evolution - a powerful engineering approach that applies Darwinian evolutionary principles at a single-gene level, using iterative rounds of focused mutagenesis followed by artificial selection of enhanced enzyme variants to improve desirable activities. I am also excited by the discovery of “unknown unknown” enzymes from soil-dwelling bacteria – enzymes we don’t presently know about that can catalyse useful chemical reactions, such as degradation of recalcitrant environmental pollutants. This approach tends to uncover enzymes that are relatively weak and ineffectual to begin with, but which can prove to be excellent start points for directed evolution, seeking to create practical solutions to major problems.