Luke Alderwick

Luke graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2003 with a first class honours degree in BSc Biochemistry. He then continued his academic training, investigating the molecular genetic and biochemical basis of cell wall assembly in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB infections.

Luke completed his Ph.D thesis following three years of study under the guidance Prof G. S. Besra, and was awarded the 2007 Dr S. W. Challinor Prize for the best PhD thesis. Many of his results generated during his PhD formed the basis of a successfully awarded Wellcome Trust program grant which enabled Dr Alderwick to continue his post-doctoral research investigating the identity and validity of new novel TB drug targets.

In 2010, Dr Alderwick was appointed to the position of Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology in the School of Bioscience at the University of Birmingham. Dr Alderwick has rapidly established himself as a leading expert in of TB drug target identification and in close collaboration with Prof G. S. Besra and Dr A. Bhatt, forms a trio of Principle Investigators heading one of the world's leading academic research groups studying M. tuberculosis physiology, genetics and molecular microbiology.

Dr Alderwick is also the director of the University of Birmingham Drug Discovery and Screening Facility (BDDSF). This £700K cutting edge research facility is located in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham and has been designed specifically to enable research groups to undertake cutting-edge drug discovery.

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