Dr Simon Caulton

School of Biosciences
Postdoctoral Research Associate

Contact details

Email: s.g.caulton@bham.ac.uk

Simon Caulton is a structural biologist with a particular interest in bacterial predation. He currently works on the model predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, elucidating the mechanisms behind its fascinating lifestyle.

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Qualifications

PhD in structural biology (2016)
MSc in oncology (2010)
BSc (Hons) in Biology (2008)

Biography

Simon Caulton completed is undergraduate in Biology from Derby University in 2008. He then completed an MSc in oncology in 2010 from the University of Nottingham. His PhD focussed on using structural biology and biophysics to investigate ubiquitin and phosphorylation systems. He currently works as a post doc at the University of Birmingham using similar techniques to understand the fundamental molecular mechanisms behind the predatory lifestyle of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.

Research

Bacterial predators are a fascinating group of creatures, and have diverse methods of predation. There lifestyles make them potential therapeutics and biological control agents, and molecular mechanism behind these lifestyles are still poorly understood. The ability of bacteria to create novel machines, weapons and defence mechanisms creates interesting targets for structural biologists to investigate. Within the Lovering Lab, Simon currently focusses on the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, an intraperiplasmic predator of Gram-negative bacteria, including investigation into how it attaches to its prey and the machinery behind its gliding motility.

Publications

Cooper, B. F., G. Ratkeviciute, L. A. Clifton, H. Johnston, R. Holyfield, D. J. Hardy, S. G. Caulton, W. Chatterton, P. Sridhar, P. Wotherspoon, G. W. Hughes, S. C. Hall, A. L. Lovering and T. J. Knowles (2024). "An octameric PqiC toroid stabilises the outer-membrane interaction of the PqiABC transport system." EMBO Rep 25(1): 82-101.

Caulton, S. G., C. Lambert, J. Tyson, P. Radford, A. Al-Bayati, S. Greenwood, E. J. Banks, C. Clark, R. Till, E. Pires, R. E. Sockett and A. L. Lovering (2024). "Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus uses chimeric fibre proteins to recognize and invade a broad range of bacterial hosts." Nat Microbiol 9(1): 214-227.

Caulton, S. G. and A. L. Lovering (2020). "Bacterial invasion and killing by predatory Bdellovibrio primed by predator prey cell recognition and self protection." Curr Opin Microbiol 56: 74-80.

Alexander, L. T., J. Durairaj, A. Kryshtafovych, L. A. Abriata, Y. Bayo, G. Bhabha, C. Breyton, S. G. Caulton, J. Chen, S. Degroux, D. C. Ekiert, B. S. Erlandsen, P. L. Freddolino, D. Gilzer, C. Greening, J. M. Grimes, R. Grinter, M. Gurusaran, M. D. Hartmann, C. J. Hitchman, J. R. Keown, A. Kropp, P. Kursula, A. L. Lovering, B. Lemaitre, A. Lia, S. Liu, M. Logotheti, S. Lu, S. Markusson, M. D. Miller, G. Minasov, H. H. Niemann, F. Opazo, G. N. Phillips, Jr., O. R. Davies, S. Rommelaere, M. Rosas-Lemus, P. Roversi, K. Satchell, N. Smith, M. A. Wilson, K. L. Wu, X. Xia, H. Xiao, W. Zhang, Z. H. Zhou, K. Fidelis, M. Topf, J. Moult and T. Schwede (2023). "Protein target highlights in CASP15: Analysis of models by structure providers." Proteins 91(12): 1571-1599.

Caulton, S. G. and A. L. Lovering (2023). "Moving toward a better understanding of the model bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus." Microbiology 169(8).

Maurer, S. K., M. P. Mayer, S. J. Ward, S. Boudjema, M. Halawa, J. Zhang, S. G. Caulton, J. Emsley and I. Dreveny (2023). "Ubiquitin-specific protease 11 structure in complex with an engineered substrate mimetic reveals a molecular feature for deubiquitination selectivity." J Biol Chem 299(11): 105300.

Morgan, J., M. Saleem, R. Ng, C. Armstrong, S. S. Wong, S. G. Caulton, A. Fickling, H. E. L. Williams, A. D. Munday, J. A. Lopez, M. S. Searle and J. Emsley (2019). "Structural basis of the leukocyte integrin Mac-1 I-domain interactions with the platelet glycoprotein Ib." Blood Adv 3(9): 1450-1459.

Spiliotopoulos, A., L. Blokpoel Ferreras, R. M. Densham, S. G. Caulton, B. C. Maddison, J. R. Morris, J. E. Dixon, K. C. Gough and I. Dreveny (2019). "Discovery of peptide ligands targeting a specific ubiquitin-like domain-binding site in the deubiquitinase USP11." J Biol Chem 294(2): 424-436.

Ward, S. J., H. E. Gratton, P. Indrayudha, C. Michavila, R. Mukhopadhyay, S. K. Maurer, S. G. Caulton, J. Emsley and I. Dreveny (2018). "The structure of the deubiquitinase USP15 reveals a misaligned catalytic triad and an open ubiquitin-binding channel." J Biol Chem 293(45): 17362-17374.