Mervyn Bibb

Mervyn Bibb
Fields	Molecular microbiology Actinomycetes Antibiotic biosynthesis Gene regulation[1]
Institutions	John Innes Centre Stanford University[2][3]
Alma mater	University of East Anglia
Thesis	Genetic and physical studies of a Streptomyces coelicolor plasmid (1978)
Doctoral advisor	David Hopwood[4][5][3]
Notable awards	FRS (2013)[6]
Website www.jic.ac.uk/STAFF/mervyn-bibb www.jic.ac.uk/profile/mervyn-bibb.asp

Mervyn James Bibb FRS is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.^[7]

Education

Bibb was educated at the University of East Anglia where he graduated with a BSc in Biological Sciences and was awarded a PhD in 1978 for studies of plasmids in Streptomyces coelicolor.^[8]

Research

Bibb does research^[9][10] on

• The regulation of secondary metabolism (antibiotic production) in streptomycetes^[11]
• Functional genomics in Streptomyces, particularly transcriptome and proteome analysis
• Lantibiotics from actinomycetes

Awards and honours

Bibb was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013. His nomination reads:

“

Mervyn Bibb is nominated for his seminal contributions to the genetic manipulation of antibiotic-producing bacteria, and to our understanding of antibiotic production and its regulation. He characterised Streptomyces plasmids, invented a method for introducing them into Streptomyces, and then developed cloning systems. This opened the way to his characterisation of the basic features of Streptomyces genes. He then applied this knowledge to the synthesis of antibiotics and their global and pathway-specific regulation. New therapeutic agents and ground-breaking approaches to yield improvement are emerging from this work.[6]

”

References

1. Mervyn Bibb's publications indexed by Google Scholar, a service provided by Google
2. Bibb, M; Schottel, J. L.; Cohen, S. N. (1980). "A DNA cloning system for interspecies gene transfer in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces". Nature 284 (5756): 526–31. doi:10.1038/284526a0. PMID 7366721.
3. Q&A with Professor Mervyn Bibb
4. Bibb, M. J.; Ward, J. M.; Hopwood, D. A. (1978). "Transformation of plasmid DNA into Streptomyces at high frequency". Nature 274 (5669): 398–400. doi:10.1038/274398a0. PMID 672966.
5. Freeman, R. F.; Bibb, M. J.; Hopwood, D. A. (1977). "Chloramphenicol acetylransferase-independent chloramphenicol resistance in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2)". Journal of general microbiology 98 (2): 453–65. doi:10.1099/00221287-98-2-453. PMID 856941.
6. http://royalsociety.org/people/mervyn-bibb/
7. Mervyn Bibb's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
8. Bibb, Mervyn (1978). Genetic and physical studies of a Streptomyces coelicolor plasmid (PhD thesis). University of East Anglia.
9. Bibb, M. J.; Findlay, P. R.; Johnson, M. W. (1984). "The relationship between base composition and codon usage in bacterial genes and its use for the simple and reliable identification of protein-coding sequences". Gene 30 (1–3): 157–66. doi:10.1016/0378-1119(84)90116-1. PMID 6096212.
10. Ward, J. M.; Janssen, G. R.; Kieser, T.; Bibb, M. J.; Buttner, M. J.; Bibb, M. J. (1986). "Construction and characterisation of a series of multi-copy promoter-probe plasmid vectors for Streptomyces using the aminoglycoside phosphotransferase gene from Tn5 as indicator". MGG Molecular & General Genetics 203 (3): 468. doi:10.1007/BF00422072.
11. Bibb, M. J. (2005). "Regulation of secondary metabolism in streptomycetes". Current Opinion in Microbiology 8 (2): 208–15. doi:10.1016/j.mib.2005.02.016. PMID 15802254.