Alistair Brown carried out his PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Gurdyal Besra at Newcastle University (2000-2004). His work primarily focused on fatty acid biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative organism of TB. He continued to work with Prof. Besra as a BBSRC funded Post-Doctoral Research associate at University of Birmingham, UK (2004-2009). His work concentrated on identification and characterisation of novel drug targets in M. tuberculosis through crystallographic and biochemical analysis. Alistair joined Northumbria University in 2009 after accepting a lectureship in microbiology

The biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Molecular biology Lipid biochemistry Bacteriology Antimicrobial discovery

Bhakta, S., Scalacci, N., Maitra, A., Brown, A. K., Dasugari, S., Evangelopoulos, D., McHugh, T. D., Mortazavi, P. N., Twist, A., Petricci, E., Manetti, F. & Castagnolo, D. (2016). Design and Synthesis of 1-(1,5-Bis(4-chlorophenyl)-2-methyl-1H-pyrrol-3-yl)methyl)-4-methylpiperazine (BM212) and N-Adamantan-2-yl-N′-(E)-3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dienyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (SQ109) Pyrrole Hybrid Derivatives: Discovery of Potent Antitubercular Agents Effective against Multidrug-Resistant Mycobacteria. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 59(6): 2780-2793. Winther, K. S., Brodersen, D. E., Brown, A. K. & Gerdes, K. (2013). VapC20 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cleaves the sarcin-ricin loop of 23S rRNA. Nature Communications 4: 2796. Taylor, R.C., Brown, A.K., Singh, A., Bhatt, A. & Besra, G.S. (2010). Characterization of a beta-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Microbiology 156: 1975-1982. Sutcliffe, L.C., Brown, A.K. & Dover, L.G. (2010). The Rhodococcal Cell Envelope: Composition, Organisation and Biosynthesis. Microbiol Monogr 16: 29-71. Al-Balas, Q., Anthony, N.G., Al-Jaidi, B., Alnimr, A., Abbott, G., Brown, A.K., Taylor, R.C., Besra, G.S., McHugh, T.D., Gillespie, S.H., Johnston, B.F., Mackay, S.P. & Coxon, G.D. (2009). Identification of 2-aminothiazole-4-carboxylate derivatives active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and the beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase mtFabH. PloS one 4: e5617. Brown, A.K., Taylor, R.C., Bhatt, A., Futterer, K. & Besra, G.S. (2009). Platensimycin activity against mycobacterial beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthases. PloS one 4: e6306. Veyron-Churlet, R., Molle, V., Taylor, R.C., Brown, A.K., Besra, G.S., Zanella-Cleon, I., Futterer, K. & Kremer, L. (2009). The Mycobacterium tuberculosis beta-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthase III activity is inhibited by phosphorylation on a single threonine residue. The Journal of biological chemistry 284: 6414-6424. Dover, L.G., Alderwick, L., Bhowruth, V., Brown, A.K., Kremer, L. & Besra, G.S. (2008). Antibiotics and New Inhibitors of the Cell Wall. Mycobacterial Cell Envelope 107-131. Mishra, K.C., de Chastellier, C., Narayana, Y., Bifani, P., Brown, A.K., Besra, G.S., Katoch, V.M., Joshi, B., Balaji, K.N. & Kremer, L. (2008). Functional role of the PE domain and immunogenicity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis triacylglycerol hydrolase LipY. Infection and immunity 76: 127-140. Bhatt, A., Brown, A.K., Singh, A., Minnikin, D.E. & Besra, G.S. (2008). Loss of a mycobacterial gene encoding a reductase leads to an altered cell wall containing beta-oxo-mycolic acid analogs and accumulation of ketones. Chemistry & biology 15: 930-939. Bhowruth, V., Brown, A.K. & Besra, G.S. (2008). Synthesis and biological evaluation of NAS-21 and NAS-91 analogues as potential inhibitors of the mycobacterial FAS-II dehydratase enzyme Rv0636. Microbiology 154: 1866-1875. Bhowruth, V., Alderwick, L.J., Brown, A.K., Bhatt, A. & Besra, G.S. (2008). Tuberculosis: a balanced diet of lipids and carbohydrates. Biochem Soc T 36: 555-565. Brown, A.K., Meng, G., Ghadbane, H., Scott, D.J., Dover, L.G., Nigou, J., Besra, G.S. & Futterer, K. (2007). Dimerization of inositol monophosphatase Mycobacterium tuberculosis SuhB is not constitutive, but induced by binding of the activator Mg2+. BMC structural biology 7: 55. Brown, A.K., Papaemmanouil, A., Bhowruth, V., Bhatt, A., Dover, L.G. & Besra, G.S. (2007). Flavonoid inhibitors as novel antimycobacterial agents targeting Rv0636, a putative dehydratase enzyme involved in Mycobacterium tuberculosis fatty acid synthase II. Microbiology 153: 3314-3322. Brown, A.K., Bhatt, A., Singh, A., Saparia, E., Evans, A.F. & Besra, G.S. (2007). Identification of the dehydratase component of the mycobacterial mycolic acid-synthesizing fatty acid synthase-II complex. Microbiology 153: 4166-4173. Dover, L.G., Alderwick, L.J., Brown, A.K., Futterer, K. & Besra, G.S. (2007). Regulation of cell wall synthesis and growth. Current molecular medicine 7: 247-276. Ghadbane, H., Brown, A.K., Kremer, L., Besra, G.S. & Futterer, K. (2007). Structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis mtFabD, a malonyl-CoA:acyl carrier protein transacylase (MCAT). Acta crystallographica Section F, Structural biology and crystallization communications 63: 831-835. Bhowruth, V., Brown, A.K., Senior, S.J., Snaith, J.S. & Besra, G.S. (2007). Synthesis and biological evaluation of a C5-biphenyl thiolactomycin library. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters 17: 5643-5646. Sridharan, S., Wang, L., Brown, A.K., Dover, L.G., Kremer, L., Besra, G.S. & Sacchettini, J.C. (2007). X-ray crystal structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis beta-ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase II (mtKasB). Journal of molecular biology 366: 469-480. Bhowruth, V., Brown, A.K., Reynolds, R.C., Coxon, G.D., Mackay, S.P., Minnikin, D.E. & Besra, G.S. (2006). Symmetrical and unsymmetrical analogues of isoxyl; active agents against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters 16: 4743-4747. Molle, V., Brown, A.K., Besra, G.S., Cozzone, A.J. & Kremer, L. (2006). The condensing activities of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis type II fatty acid synthase are differentially regulated by phosphorylation. The Journal of biological chemistry 281: 30094-30103. Brown, A.K., Sridharan, S., Kremer, L., Lindenberg, S., Dover, L.G., Sacchettini, J.C. & Besra, G.S. (2005). Probing the mechanism of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis beta-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthase III mtFabH: factors influencing catalysis and substrate specificity. The Journal of biological chemistry 280: 32539-32547. Radmacher, E., Alderwick, L.J., Besra, G.S., Brown, A.K., Gibson, K.J., Sahm, H. & Eggeling, L. (2005). Two functional FAS-I type fatty acid synthases in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Microbiology 151: 2421-2427. Gande, R., Gibson, K.J., Brown, A.K., Krumbach, K., Dover, L.G., Sahm, H., Shioyama, S., Oikawa, T., Besra, G.S. & Eggeling, L. (2004). Acyl-CoA carboxylases (accD2 and accD3), together with a unique polyketide synthase (Cg-pks), are key to mycolic acid biosynthesis in Corynebacterianeae such as Corynebacterium glutamicum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Journal of biological chemistry 279: 44847-44857. Kremer, L., Dover, L.G., Carrere, S., Nampoothiri, K.M., Lesjean, S., Brown, A.K., Brennan, P.J., Minnikin, D.E., Locht, C. & Besra, G.S. (2002). Mycolic acid biosynthesis and enzymic characterization of the beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase A-condensing enzyme from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Biochemical journal 364: 423-430.