Dr Egbert Hoiczyk
School of Biosciences
Senior Lecturer
+44 114 222 2733
Full contact details
School of Biosciences
Firth Court
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
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Career history
- 2015 - present: Senior Lecturer, School of Biosciences, the University of Sheffield.
- 2002 - 2015: Assistant Professor, Dept. Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- 1998 - 2002: Postdoctoral Fellow, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
- 1997 - 1998: Postdoctoral Fellow, Max von Pettenkofer Institute, Munich, Germany.
- Qualifications
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Honours and distinctions
- 2005: Faculty Innovation Award (Dept. of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University)
- 2000 - 2002: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Fellowship
- Since 1992: Permanent Member of the German National Scholarship Foundation1986-1989 Student Fellowship of the German National Scholarship Foundation (“Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”)
- 1990 - 1992: PhD Fellowship of the German National Scholarship Foundation
- Research interests
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My laboratory uses high-resolution light and electron microscopy to study the structure, dynamics, and functions of important bacterial subcellular complexes to determine how they contribute to cellular organization.
Recent advances in high-resolution microscopy, bioinformatics, and structural determination have resulted in a fundamental reassessment of bacterial cell organization.
Once perceived as simple and unorganized, in recent years bacteria have become appreciated for possessing structural, spatial, and temporal organizations that rival that of eukaryotic cells.
Through an approach that couples advanced microscopy with classical genetics, biochemistry, and cell physiology, we aim at understanding how this complex organization is achieved and maintained in cells. Two different experimental approaches are used to accomplish this goal.
The first approach relies on the fractionation of cells to discover, isolate, and characterize novel sub-cellular complexes and organelles that form the elementary building blocks of bacterial cells, while the second approach uses live imaging techniques, electron tomography, and genetic studies to study the function and dynamics of these structures in the context of living cells.
For most of our work, we use the predatory soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus as model organism. M. xanthus is highly social and forms large multicellular swarms that cooperatively feed on organic matter, including other bacterial cells, which are digested through the secretion of lytic enzymes.
With a nearly 10 MB genome containing 7500 ORFs and a complex life-cycle that includes cellular differentiation, M. xanthus offers excellent opportunities to study bacterial cellular organization on a cellular level, and the contributions of the organelles to cellular differentiation processes and multicellular behaviours.
To complement these studies we occasionally use additional prokaryotic organisms, including cyanobacteria and archaea that help validate and expand our findings in myxobacteria.
- Publications
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Featured publications
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All publications
Journal articles
- A noncanonical cytochrome c stimulates calcium binding by PilY1 for type IVa pili formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6).
- Bacterial nanocompartments: structures, functions and applications.. Journal of Bacteriology. View this article in WRRO
- The genetics of prey susceptibility to myxobacterial predation: a review, including an investigation into pseudomonas aeruginosa mutations affecting predation by myxococcus xanthus. Microbial Physiology, 31(2), 57-66.
- FtsZ-dependent elongation of a coccoid bacterium. mBio, 7(5).
- Ferroxidase-Mediated Iron Oxide Biomineralization: Novel Pathways to Multifunctional Nanoparticles. Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 41(2), 190-203. View this article in WRRO
- Cell rejuvenation and social behaviors promoted by LPS exchange in myxobacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(22), E2939-E2946. View this article in WRRO
- Staphylococcus aureus Survives with a Minimal Peptidoglycan Synthesis Machine but Sacrifices Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance. PLoS Pathogens, 11(5). View this article in WRRO
- Synthesis and Assembly of a Novel Glycan Layer in Myxococcus xanthus Spores. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 289(46), 32364-32378. View this article in WRRO
- A virus capsid‐like nanocompartment that stores iron and protects bacteria from oxidative stress. The EMBO Journal, 33(17), 1896-1911. View this article in WRRO
- Sambucus nigra extracts inhibit infectious bronchitis virus at an early point during replication. BMC Veterinary Research, 10(1), 24-24.
- The Bactofilin Cytoskeleton Protein BacM of Myxococcus xanthus Forms an Extended β-Sheet Structure Likely Mediated by Hydrophobic Interactions. PLOS ONE, 10(3), e0121074-e0121074. View this article in WRRO
- Viral Paratransgenesis in the Malaria Vector Anopheles gambiae. PLoS Pathogens, 4(8), e1000135-e1000135. View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings papers
- Use of mNeonGreen as label for Single Molecule Localisation Microscopy (SMLM). mmc 2017
- Phage Capsid-like Structure of Myxococcus xanthus Encapsulin, a Protein Shell That Stores Iron. Microscopy and Microanalysis, Vol. 20(S3) (pp 1244-1245)
Preprints
- Mycobacterium smegmatis expands across surfaces using hydraulic sliding, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- A noncanonical cytochrome c stimulates calcium binding by PilY1 for type IVa pili formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6).
- Teaching activities
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Level 4 modules
- MBB409 Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobials
- MBB6403 MSC Research Projects
Level 3 modules
- MBB328 The Organisation of Bacterial Cells
- MBB361 Literature Review
- MBB380 Laboratory Project
Level 2 modules
- MBB263 Microbiology
Level 1 modules
- MBB162 Genetics