WH Pierce 2007: Dennis Linton
Dr Dennis Linton is a microbiologist at University of Manchester. He largely works on Campylobacters and related species, glycosylation and gene regulation.
Dennis received the prize at the 2007 SfAM Summer Conference in Cardiff. It was his work into ‘Phase variation and the ever-changing surface of Campylobacter jejuni’ that caught the attention of the judges.
He researched the functional characterisation of phase variable genes of C. jejuni. These are located at loci involved in the biogenesis of components of the bacterial cell surface, including the flagella. The understanding of the structural consequences of this phase variation, in particular that associated with the formation of flagella.