Honorary Faculty - Professor Gad Frankel

Professor Gad Frankel's research focuses on mechanisms of bacterial colonisation and infection, with particular interest in biology of bacterial proteins that allow take over of a host cell (translocated bacterial effectors). Gad has been collaborating with Gordon Dougan for many years and is affiliated with the Microbial pathogenesis group.

Gad has worked with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute since 2001, initially on bacterial genome projects (including enteropathogenic E. coli, Citrobacter rodentium, Legionella pneumophila and Salmonella species) and more recently on host-pathogen interaction.

He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1982 with BSc in biology. In 1998 Gad received his PhD in genetics and did his postdoctoral training first at Stanford University and then at Imperial College. In 1998 he was appointed lecturer at Imperial College and in 2000 and 2002 was promoted to Reader and Professor, respectively.

Gad heads a multidisciplinary research group that studies host-pathogen interaction. The remit of these studies ranges from the atomic resolution of virulence factors to in vivo imaging of infection in real time.

Selected Publications

• Enteropathogenic and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli: even more subversive elements.

  Wong AR, Pearson JS, Bright MD, Munera D, Robinson KS, Lee SF, Frankel G and Hartland EL

  Molecular microbiology 2011;80;6;1420-38

  PUBMED: 21488979; DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07661.x

• Citrobacter rodentium is an unstable pathogen showing evidence of significant genomic flux.

  Petty NK, Feltwell T, Pickard D, Clare S, Toribio AL, Fookes M, Roberts K, Monson R, Nair S, Kingsley RA, Bulgin R, Wiles S, Goulding D, Keane T, Corton C, Lennard N, Harris D, Willey D, Rance R, Yu L, Choudhary JS, Churcher C, Quail MA, Parkhill J, Frankel G, Dougan G, Salmond GP and Thomson NR

  PLoS pathogens 2011;7;4;e1002018

  PUBMED: 21490962; PMC: 3072379; DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002018

• The WxxxE effector EspT triggers expression of immune mediators in an Erk/JNK and NF-KB-dependent manner

  Raymond, B., Crepin, V.F., Collins, J.W., and Frankel, G.

  Cell. Microbiol. 2011

• Phylogenetic and functional analysis of the virulence strategy of Salmonella bongori.

  Fookes, M. Schroeder, G.M., Langridge, G., Blondel, C.J., Mammina, C., Vernikos, G.S., Robinson, K.S., Petty, N.K., Kingsley, R.A., Baumler, A., Nuccio, S.P., Contreras, I., Santiviago, C.A., Maskell, D., Barrow, P., Humphrey, T., Nastasi, A., Roberts, M., Frankel, G., Parkhill, J., Dougan, G., and Thomson, N.R.

  PLoS Pathogens 2011

• NleH effectors interact with Bax inhibitor-1 to block apoptosis during enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infection.

  Hemrajani C, Berger CN, Robinson KS, Marchès O, Mousnier A and Frankel G

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010;107;7;3129-34

  PUBMED: 20133763; PMC: 2840288; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0911609106

• The T3SS effector EspT defines a new category of invasive enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) which form intracellular actin pedestals.

  Bulgin R, Arbeloa A, Goulding D, Dougan G, Crepin VF, Raymond B and Frankel G

  PLoS pathogens 2009;5;12;e1000683

  PUBMED: 20011125; PMC: 2782363; DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000683

Related links:

• Frankel lab