Collaborations and Partnerships

To achieve our research goals, we adopt a strongly interdisciplinary approach and collaborate extensively with leading scientists across academia and industry worldwide.

We work in close partnership with the ISMB Chemistry Laboratories, the ISMB Biophysics Unit and the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory enabling advanced biochemical and biophysical characterisation of mycobacterial proteins, alongside high-resolution structural studies through protein crystallography.

Through a formal academic partnership between UCL and Birkbeck, we access Containment Level 3 and 4 facilities at the Royal Free Hospital (NHS)/UCL, supporting research on high-risk pathogens under appropriate biosafety conditions. We are also core members of several major research networks, including the London RNA lab, London Nanotechnology Centre, NTM Network-UK, UCL-TB, a WHO Collaborating Centre on tuberculosis research and innovation, the UCL Doctoral Training Programme in Antimicrobial Resistance, Centre for Innovation Management Research and the Ineos Oxford Institute, which collectively strengthen our translational reach and collaborative capacity.

A key innovation from our laboratory is the “iSPOT-AMR” phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) platform. Developed through our interdisciplinary research, this platform: (a) enhances translational relevance by simulating host-like conditions that closely mimic the in vivo infection environment; (b) enables robust evaluation of advanced and reformulated antimicrobials, including compounds unsuitable for conventional assays; (c) delivers rapid and reproducible AST data for slow-growing and clinically significant mycobacterial pathogens; and (d) reduces reliance on animal models, in alignment with the 3Rs principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. We are committed to ensuring that iSPOT-AMR is both scientifically rigorous and commercially viable, with clear applications in clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical research and development, and academic microbiology.

In addition, we maintain a strategic collaboration with Nuclera (Cambridge, UK), enabling the characterisation of challenging mycobacterial membrane proteins using a cell-free, surrogate-free protein synthesis platform. We also work with Foundation for Neglected Disease Research (Bangalore, India) to support the design of clinical trials for tuberculosis (TB) and non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) diseases.

Our research is supported by major external funders, including the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, the British Council–Newton Fund, and European Union research funding programmes.