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Colin Berry

Professor Colin Berry

Professor

School of Biosciences

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Research overview

Work in Prof Berry's laboratory is centred around studies of insecticidal proteins produced by bacteria that can be used in the biological control of agricultural pests and insect vectors of disease.  Studies include:

  • Investigations of specificity and mechanism of action of the proteins
  • Structural analysis of the proteins using X-ray crystallography, Xfel and cryo-electron microscopy

Additional studies on mosquito behaviour and response to semiochemicals and artificial feedants is also underway in the laboratory.

Publication

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Articles

Book sections

Conferences

Research

The Insecticidal proteins of Lysinibacillus sphaericus and Bacillus thuringiensis

Some strains of the bacterium Lysinibacillus sphaericus produce a variety of proteins that act specifically against mosquito larvae with few effects on non-target organisms and no harmful effects on humans. This makes it a useful agent for the biological control of mosquito populations which may constitute major pests and vectors of a range of extremely serious human diseases (including malaria, elephantiasis, zika, yellow fever and dengue fever). Research in Prof Berry's group includes investigations of the mode of action of these proteins, discovery of new pesticidal proteins, regulation of gene expression and strain improvement for enhanced biological control. 

The Berry group was involved in the elucidation of the first complete sequence of a virulence megaplasmid (approx. 128kb) from Bacillus thuringiensis, that encodes the invertebrate-active proteins (and helper proteins) in this bacterium. The group was also involved in the first sequencing of a genome of Lysinibacillus sphaericus.  More recently, Prof Berry has been involved in mining whole genomes for novel invertebrate-active proteins and ongoing work includes the elucidation of the 3-dimensional structures of a number of insecticidal proteins and studies to understand their specificity and mechanism of action. 

Bacillus thuringiensis pesticidal proteins are active against a range of invertebrates and belong to a number of distinct structural classes.  As part of a group of academics, Prof Berry has been involved the recent reclassification of bacterial, invertebrate-active proteins and in setting up the Bacterial Pesticidal Protein Resource Center (BPPRC) with information on bacterial proteins that are active against invertebrates www.bpprc.org and an associated database listing these proteins, their structures and their specificity www.bpprc-db.org

Parasite Aspartic Proteinases

Aspartic proteinases perform critical functions in many parasites that cause serious human or livestock diseases and are thus excellent targets for the design of novel anti-parasitic drugs. Such functions include roles in invasion of the host or as part of the parasite's digestive system. Prof Berry's group has studied these enzymes from a range of protozoan and helminthic parasites as targets for inhibitor design. The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum may produce up to ten aspartic proteinases (the plasmepsins). Some of these plasmepsins are involved in parasite digestion of host red cell haemoglobin and inhibition of these enzymes can lead to parasite death. Prof Berry's group has cloned and expressed plasmepsins I and II in recombinant form and has completed their full kinetic characterisation with a series of synthetic substrates and a number of inhibitors. With industrial collaborators, a compound which kills parasites in red blood cells in culture and shows selective inhibition of plasmepsin I was been identified. The results of these studies will facilitate the design of new inhibitory compounds as potential anti-malarial drugs.  More recent work has identified a potential drug target in Leishmania parasites that may be targeted by HIV proteinase inhibitors or related compounds.

Grant funding

Prof Berry's work has received funding from a variety of sources including The Royal Society, the UK research councils, the Welsh Development Agency, the World Health Organisation, KESS, the Leverhulme Trust, the Wellcome Trust, the British Council, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Cardiff Partnership Fund, Camtech & various industrial sponsors.

Current collaborators

  • Prof Primitivo Caballero, Universidad Publica de Navarra, Spain
  • Dr Neil Crickmore, University of Sussex, UK
  • Prof Bryony Bonning, University of Florida, USA
  • Dr John Ssebaale, Makerere University, Uganda
  • Prof Raffi Aroian, UMass Medical School
  • Dr Dominik Uberthur, DESI, Germany
  • Dr Leopoldo Palma, Universidad Nacional de Villa Maria, Argentina

Biography

Career:
  • Professor, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, 2019-present.
  • Reader, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, 2009-2019.
  • DSc, University of Bristol, 2008.
  • Visiting Professor, Agronomy and Veterinary Faculty, University of Brasilia, Brazil, 2008.
  • Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, 2003-2009.
  • Lecturer in Biochemistry, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, 2000-2003.
  • E. Alan Johnston Royal Society Research Fellow, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, 1992-2002.
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, National University of Singapore, 1988-1992.
  • PhD Biochemistry, University of Bristol, 1988.
  • BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, University of Southampton, 1984.

Professional memberships

  • Society for Invertebrate Pathology

Committees and reviewing

Current:

  • Learned Society officer:  Chair Elect Bacterial Division, Society for invertebrate Pathology 2019-2021
    Chair, Bacterial Division, Society for invertebrate Pathology 2021-23
  • Editorial Board:  Journal of Invertebrate Pathology

Past:

  • Editorial Board: Applied and Environmental Microbiology
  • Editor: FEMS Microbiology Reviews
  • Guest Editor: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA

Supervisions

* Structure and function of insecticidal proteins

Contact Details

Email Berry@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 74508
Campuses Sir Martin Evans Building, Room W2.50, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX