New Approaches to Prokaryotic Systematics

Professor Mike Goodfellow was awarded undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Liverpool where his life long interests in pure and applied microbial systematics began. He developed his expertise in actinobacterial systematics as an MRC Junior Research Fellow in the MRC Microbial Systematics Unit at the University of Leicester. At the University of Newcastle he helped pioneer the development of chemotaxonomic methods in prokaryotic systematics before focusing on the selective isolation, classification and screening of novel actinobacteria for new natural product leads drawing on financial support from industrial and governmental bodies. Until recently he was Chairman to the Board of Trustees of Bergey’s Manual Trust and was both senior editor and a major contributor to the Second Edition of Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology which was devoted to The Actinobacteria.

Prof Sutcliffe studied for his first degree in Biochemistry at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he stayed on to complete a PhD in microbial membrane physiology, supervised by Dr Norman Shaw. Subsequent post-doctoral research notably included a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship in Taxonomy (in the Department of Oral Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne) during which time his interested in cell envelope components as chemotaxonomic markers was developed. After a Senior Lectureship at the University of Sunderland (1996-2004) he moved to Northumbria University, where he is now Chair of Microbiology. His research focuses on the membrane-anchored molecules of bacteria, in particular bacterial lipoproteins (which appear to be a unique and ubiquitous feature of bacteria), lipoglycans and lipoteichoic acids. This work has been extended to using comparative genomics approaches to understand the diversity of microbial cell envelope structures at the phylum level, work underpinned by his interest in microbial systematics. Prof Sutcliffe is currently Editor-in-Chief of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Journal of Microbiology and in this role has gained considerable experience of the procedures for describing new microbial taxa and the challenges facing microbial systematists.