Dr Alistair Sutherland

Senior Lecturer in Microbiology

Profile:

I am a Senior lecturer and Microbiologist in the Department of Biological Sciences. I have particular interests in bacterial pathogenicity (C. difficile; L. monocytogenes) and also in biofuel production, particularly anaerobic digestion of seaweeds. My teaching reflects this and I am the module leader for Applied Microbiology, Microbial Biotechnology and Bacterial Pathogenicity in third, MSc and fourth years, respectively.

I am currently seconded to CCMAR, University of Algarve, Portugal where I have a Marie Curie Fellowship to optimise microbial inocula for anaerobic digestion, including developing metagenomic analysis of microbiota.

Research Interests:

Clostridium difficile:
- Development of novel strategies to inhibit C. difficile toxins A and B in vitro and in vivo. Either by cloning and expressing inhibitory analogs of these toxins or by isolating recombinant peptides from phage libraries which bind to these toxins.
- Determining the incidence of, and molecular typing of , C. difficile in the environment, in companion animals and in foods
- Collaborative study with Edinburgh University and The Neutral Office construction of a panel of C. difficile strains to assess the quality control of molecular diagnostics in hospital laboratories worldwide.
The role of prebiotics and probiotics in inhibiting growth and virulence of vaginal bacterial and fungal pathogens in vitro.
The development of novel microbial consortia for the anaerobic digestion of seaweeds, microalgae and other novel biomass for biofuel production and platform hydrocarbons in biorefineries.

Teaching Interests:

Preparing and delivering lectures to all levels of students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Biomedical Science, Applied Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Microbiology. Module leader for 5 modules. I have designed modules for undergraduate students: Year 3, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology; Year 4, Bacterial Pathogenicity and Postgraduate MSc: Biology of Disease for Biomedical Scientists module, and Research Project Preparation module. Designing and supervising honours projects for Biomedical Science and Applied Microbiology students and MSc projects for Biomedical Science students.

Recent Publications:

F.L. Craig, D.J. Brown, J. Stewart, H. Mather, A.D. Sutherland, J.E. Coia (Glasgow, UK) An investigation into antibiotic susceptibility and ribotype profiles among community-acquired and hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile strains isolated in a university teaching hospital laboratory. Clinical Microbiology and Infection. Vol 14 , 18th ECCMID meeting, Barcelona 19 - 22 April 2008, pS121-S666, May 2008.

Sutherland, A., Tester, R. F., Al-Ghazzewi, F., McCulloch, E. and Connolly, M. (2008) Glucomannan hydrolysate (GMH) inhibition of Candida albicans growth in the presence of Lactobacillus and Lactococcus species. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 20, 127-134.

Marwah M. Bakri, Derek J. Brown, John P. Butcher, and Alistair D. Sutherland (2009) Clostridium difficile in Ready-to-Eat Salads, Scotland. Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol. 15, No. 5, 817-818. Impact factor 6.3

Bakri M, Sutherland A, Brown D, Crossan C, Vesely P and Scobie L (2009). Assessment of the potential risk of infection associated with Clostridium difficile from porcine xenografts. Xenotransplantation. 16: 472–476

Dr Sarah Fox, Tom S Wilkinson, Ph.D; Paul S Wheatley, Ph.D; Bo Xiao, Ph.D; Russell E Morris, Ph.D; Alistair Sutherland, Ph.D; A. John Simpson, Ph.D M.D; Peter G Barlow, Ph.D; Anthony R Butler, Ph.D; Ian L Megson, Ph. D (2010) NO-loaded Zn2+-Exchanged Zeolite Materials; A Potential Bi-Functional Anti-Bacterial Strategy. Acta Biomaterialia 6, 1515–1521.

N.B. Sharef, K.E. Aidoo, M.M. Bakri, A.D. Sutherland. Detection and isolation of Listeria monocytogenes and other species from dairy products and dairy processing environments in Glasgow. Glasgow Caledonian University 28 th May 2008.

M.M. Bakri, A.D. Sutherland. Antimicrobial Activity of Natural Products Against C. Difficile. Scottish Microbiology Society Symposium, Glasgow 27 th August 2008.

R. Sidhu M.M. Bakri, A.D. Sutherland. Optimisation of Clostridium difficile strain growth and inactivation for the preparation of a quality control panel. Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh 28 th August 2008.

M.M. Bakri, A.D. Sutherland. Antimicrobial Activity of Natural Products Against C. difficile. 21st International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) International symposium, Aberdeen 1- 4 September 2008.

M.M. Bakri, A.D. Sutherland, D. Brown. Prevalence of toxigenic C. difficile in retail ready to eat mixed-vegetable salads in Scotland. 21st International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) International symposium, Aberdeen 1- 4 September 2008.

Ian Poxton and Alastair Sutherland. 2008. Quality Control for Molecular Diagnostics. Clostridium difficile CDDNA08. Project report On behalf of QCMD and its council p1-8.

Ian Poxton and Alastair Sutherland. 2010. Quality Control for Molecular Diagnostics. Clostridium difficile CDDNA10. Project report On behalf of QCMD and its council p1-7.

Alastair D. Sutherland, Susan E. Withers and Alan G. Williams. ITI Project Seaweed Anaerobic Digestion, Phase One: Enzymatic Conversion. Final Report 15th April 2010.

Recent Funding:

The molecular epidemiology of Clostridium difficile in the environment. Saudi Arabian Government 2007- 2010 £12,000.
Neutral Office QCMD collaborative study to produce strains for testing the validity of C. difficile molecular identification assays in a Worldwide panel of laboratories. 2008- 2009.£1, 250.
Spark award (KTN) of £5,800 to study the isolation of phage for the control of sulphate reducing bacteria in anaerobic digesters, in collaboration with Advanced Pest Solutions Ltd. April-August 2011.
Spark award (KTN) of £5,000 to study the use of remote pH and temperature sensors in lab fermenters, in collaboration with Well Cow Ltd., suppliers of rumen boluses. February to July 2012.
An iTi Energy (Scottish Government) grant.Anaerobic digestion of seaweed for biofuels, 2009-2010. £147,000.
Marie Curie Research Fellow September 2011 till August 2013. Seconded to CCMAR, University of Algarve, Portugal. Investigating metagenomic analysis of anaerobic digestion of seaweeds for biofuels. Award of €212,000.

Current Research Supervision:

Priya Suryakumar. PhD student studying the anaerobic digestion of seaweed
New Student (TBA) Joint supervision with Dr Natalia Chubar (School of Engineering and Built Environment)studying surface characteristics and metal removal properties of microbes from the three domains of life.
New Student (TBA). Energy Technology Partnership funded. Joint supervision with Dr Wilf Mitchell (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) and Green Biologics Ltd.

Collaborations:

Prof. Ian Poxton, University of Edinburgh and The Neutral Office, Glasgow. Quality Control for Molecular Diagnostics Project. Producing a molecular testing panel for C. difficile strains for over thirty labs worldwide.
Prof João Varela, Dr Rodrigo Costa and Prof Emelia Costa. Collaboration on optimisation and metagenomic analysis of anerobic digestion inocula for producing biofuels from macro and microalgae
Dr Wilf Mitchell, Heriot-Watt University. Characterisation of sugar uptake systems in solventogenic Clostridia for butanol production.

Research Alumni:

Dr Janice Taylor is a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University
Dr Elaine McCulloch is a clinical scientist at Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow
Dr John Butcher is a post doc at Glasgow University
Dr Marwah Bakri is a Dean of Science at College of Girls, Gizan, Saudi Arabia

Knowledge Transfer and Consultancies:

Spark award (KTN) of £5,800 to study the isolation of phage for the control of sulphate reducing bacteria in anaerobic digesters, in collaboration with Advanced Pest Solutions Ltd. April-August 2011.
Spark award (KTN) of £5,000 to study the use of remote pH and temperature sensors in lab fermenters, in collaboration with Well Cow Ltd., suppliers of rumen boluses. February to July 2012.

Other Interests:

When I get the chance you’ll find me on the water, sailing my Heavenly Twins catamaran; climbing up a Scottish mountain or skiing (badly). However, since I’m currently on secondment in the Algarve I am canoeing in the sunshine instead!