Prof Jeremy Webb
PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Co-Director, National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC)
J.S.Webb@soton.ac.uk (PA: Lesley Anne Clarke, L.A.Clarke@soton.ac.uk)
Profile page(s)
Jeremy S Webb is Professor of Microbiology within the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton, and co-Director for the UK’s National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC).
NBIC is a £26m UKRI Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC). This is a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary centre, working together with an industry hub, that provides academic and business connectivity across the UK. Webb’s research is focused on the understanding of complex microbial consortia and biofilms, their ecology, physiology and life-cycle dynamics, and how they respond to environmental stresses including therapeutic compounds. With the NBIC team and consortium, he is developing technologies and interventions for the control of microbial communities that are central to some of the most urgent societal challenges including water, food and energy security and safety, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Landmark publications:
1: Howlin RP, Cathie K, Hall-Stoodley L, Cornelius V, Duignan C, Allan RN, Fernandez BO, Barraud N, Bruce KD, Jefferies J, Kelso M, Kjelleberg S, Rice SA, Rogers GB, Pink S, Smith C, Sukhtankar PS, Salib R, Legg J, Carroll M, Daniels T, Feelisch M, Stoodley P, Clarke SC, Connett G, Faust SN, Webb JS. Low-Dose Nitric Oxide as Targeted Anti-biofilm Adjunctive Therapy to Treat Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection in Cystic Fibrosis. Mol Ther. 2017 Sep 6;25(9):2104-2116. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2017.06.021. Epub 2017 Jul 24. PMID: 28750737; PMCID: PMC5589160.
2: Churton NW, Misra RV, Howlin RP, Allan RN, Jefferies J, Faust SN, Gharbia SE, Edwards RJ, Clarke SC, Webb JS. Parallel Evolution in Streptococcus pneumoniae Biofilms. Genome Biol Evol. 2016 May 9;8(5):1316-26. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evw072. PMID: 27190203; PMCID: PMC4898793.
3: Rineh A, Soren O, McEwan T, Ravikumar V, Poh WH, Azamifar F, Naimi-Jamal MR, Cheung CY, Elliott AG, Zuegg J, Blaskovich MAT, Cooper MA, Dolange V, Christodoulides M, Cook GM, Rice SA, Faust SN, Webb JS, Kelso MJ. Discovery of Cephalosporin-3'-Diazeniumdiolates That Show Dual Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Clinical Cystic Fibrosis Isolates and Efficacy in a Murine Respiratory Infection Model. ACS Infect Dis. 2020 Jun 12;6(6):1460-1479. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00070. Epub 2020 May 5. PMID: 32329596.
4: Lister AP, Highmore CJ, Hanrahan N, Read J, Munro APS, Tan S, Allan RN, Faust SN, Webb JS, Mahajan S. Multi-Excitation Raman Spectroscopy for Label-Free, Strain-Level Characterization of Bacterial Pathogens in Artificial Sputum Media. Anal Chem. 2022 Jan 18;94(2):669-677. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02501. Epub 2022 Jan 3. PMID: 34978813.
Major grants:
2019 – 2021 Read, R. (PI) Faust, S. Webb, J. S., et al.. National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), UK, and Department of Health and Social Care (DOHSC), UK. Southampton Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Clinical Research Laboratory (Capital grant, NIHR200638) £2.86M.
2017 – 2022 Webb (PI), C. MacPhee, M. Camara, R. Raval, Keevil, Stoodley, Faust, Smith, Leighton, Poppy et al… BBSRC The National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) BB/R012415/1). £26M.
2017 - 2020 Antabio Pharma (lead applicant), Webb (UoS scientific lead), Faust (clinical lead). Development of small molecule inhibitors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms to treat chronic infections in cystic fibrosis patients (2nd Phase Seeding Drug Discovery Programme). Euro 9M.
2018 - 2024 Davies (Imperial College London, PI), Webb (CoI)Cystic Fibrosis Trust, UK. Personalised Approach to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAPA) Strategic Research Centre award, SRC014. £750K.
Impact examples:
First clinical trial of a biofilm-targeted therapeutic strategy to combat chronic infection in cystic fibrosis - see Howlin et al. 2017 above.
The National Biofilms Innovation Centre. NBIC engages in a wide range of research, innovation, training, outreach, policy and other impact-related activities with further details at www.biofilms.ac.uk.