Helen O' Hare's Research Interests
Protein kinases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
My research is focused on the essential serine threonine protein kinases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Recent work has established a role for these proteins in regulating mycobacterial metabolism. Using biochemical assays of recombinant and native proteins, genetic manipulation of mycobacteria and phenotypic characterisation, I am investigating kinase signalling, the control of metabolism and the roles of bacterial kinases in infection.
A new technique named Split-Trp was developed with Professor Kai Johnsson at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. Split-Trp allows the measurement of protein-protein interactions in living mycobacteria and this method is being used to assay the interactions of protein kinases with their substrates.
