Dr. Liam K. R. Sharkey joined the University of Melbourne in 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher in the Stinear lab. Previously, he completed his PhD at the University of Leeds, UK. Dr. Sharkey's research seeks to use insights gained through the study of bacterial physiology to inform the discovery of novel antibacterial drugs. At present, his work focusses on essential signal transduction in Staphylococcus aureus.
Dr. Sacha J. Pidot is an Associate Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Doherty Institute, The University of Melbourne. He is a molecular microbiologist with interests in identifying and developing new antimicrobials, primarily from Actinomycete bacteria. He graduated with a PhD from Monash University, during which time he investigated the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer. This was followed by an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Prof Christian Hertweck at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research in Germany, where he studied natural product biosynthesis in anaerobic bacteria, leading to the discovery of the antibiotic clostrubin. Dr. Pidot established his own group within the Doherty Institute in 2019, where he continues to unearth new antimicrobials and investigate their biosynthesis, in particular those from human pathogenic bacteria.
