Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Early life and education  





2 Career and research  





3 Honours and awards  





4 References  














Liz Sockett







Add links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Liz Sockett
Born

Renee Elizabeth Sockett


1962 (age 61–62)
Alma materUniversity of Leeds (BSc)
University College London (PhD)
AwardsDaiwa Adrian Prize (2007)
Scientific career
FieldsMicrobiology
Bdellovibrio
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
University of Nottingham
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
ThesisBiochemistry of motility and taxis in purple photosynthetic bacteria (1986)
Websitenottingham.ac.uk/life-sciences/people/liz.sockett

Renee Elizabeth Sockett CBE FRS (born 1962) is a professor and microbiologist in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham.[1][2][3] She is a world-leading expert on Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, a species of predatory bacteria.[4][5]

Early life and education[edit]

Sockett was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1962 and completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry at the University of Leeds in 1983.[6] She moved to University College London (UCL) for her postgraduate study, and was awarded a PhD in 1986 for research on the biochemistry of motility and taxisinpurple bacteria.[7]

Career and research[edit]

After completing her PhD, Sockett worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1986-1988)[citation needed] and then the University of Oxford (1988-1990)[citation needed]. In 1991, she was appointed as a Lecturer at the University of Nottingham and subsequently promoted to senior lecturer in 2001, Reader in 2004 and Professor in 2005.[8]

Her research group started by studying the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Her interests in bacterial physiology and mechanisms then turned to understanding the bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.[9][4] Bdellovibrio preys upon a wide range of bacteria including antibiotic-resistant pathogens that are harmful to human health. Sockett's lab have studied the genomeofBdellovibrio during the invasion of other bacteria.[6] Her group has identified several Bdellovibrio genes that make enzymes which break down important structural components of bacteria, and also secrete enzymes that break down chromosomes.[10] She is studying the application of predatory bacteria like Bdellovibrio to treat antimicrobial-resistant infections.[11]

Sockett's group worked together with Alexandra Willis and her PhD supervisor[citation needed] Serge Mostowy [Wikidata]atImperial College London to study Bdellovibrio predation in a zebrafish infection model.[citation needed] Zebrafish infected with a lethal dose of the antibiotic-resistant human pathogen Shigella flexneri were given Bdellovibrio as a treatment. Together, the researchers showed that Bdellovibrio could kill the Shigella, working synergistically with the zebrafishs' own immune system to promote zebrafish survival.[12][13][14]

Sockett and her group collaborated with Erkin Kuru at Indiana University Bloomington, using fluorescent D-amino acids (FDAAs) to illuminate the mechanisms by which Bdellovibrio invades its prey. They discovered that Bdellovibrio forms a small reinforced 'porthole' in the cell wall of its prey through which it squeezes and then re-seals from the inside.[15][16]

She also has long-standing collaborations with Andrew Lovering at the University of Birmingham, who studies the structural biology of predatory Bdellovibrio enzymes, and Waldemar Vollmer at Newcastle University, who studies the structure of bacterial cell walls.[citation needed]

As part of a Human Frontier Science Program grant, Sockett collaborated with Shin-Ichi Aizawa to study the Bdellovibrio interaction with Escherichia coli.[17] Her strains appeared in electron microscope images in the 2013 book The Flagellar World.[18]

Her research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), Leverhulme Trust and the Wellcome Trust.[citation needed]

Sockett is a communicator and role model for careers in microbiology, which was recognised by the award of the Peter Wildy prize of the Society for General Microbiology in 2006, where her prize lecture was entitled Not Just Germs - Bringing Bacteria to Life.[19]

Socket is an advocate for public engagement and science outreach.[20]

Honours and awards[edit]

Sockett was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to microbiology.[21]

Sockett was interviewed on The Life ScientificbyJim Al-Khalili in 2017.[6] Other awards and honours include:

References[edit]

  1. ^ Liz Sockett publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  • ^ Liz Sockett publications from Europe PubMed Central
  • ^ Sharp, P. M. (2005). "Variation in the strength of selected codon usage bias among bacteria". Nucleic Acids Research. 33 (4): 1141–1153. doi:10.1093/nar/gki242. ISSN 1362-4962. PMC 549432. PMID 15728743.
  • ^ a b Sockett, Renee Elizabeth (2009). "Predatory lifestyle of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus". Annual Review of Microbiology. 63: 523–539. doi:10.1146/annurev.micro.091208.073346. ISSN 1545-3251. PMID 19575566.
  • ^ Rendulic, S. (2004). "A Predator Unmasked: Life Cycle of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus from a Genomic Perspective". Science. 303 (5658): 689–692. Bibcode:2004Sci...303..689R. doi:10.1126/science.1093027. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 14752164. S2CID 38154836. Closed access icon
  • ^ a b c Al-Khalili, Jim (2017). "Liz Sockett on friendly killer bacteria: The Life Scientific". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  • ^ Socket, Renee Elizabeth (1986). Biochemistry of motility and taxis in purple photosynthetic bacteria. london.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of London. OCLC 941031856.
  • ^ "Liz Sockett - The University of Nottingham". nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-09-29.
  • ^ a b "Elizabeth Sockett". asm.org. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ "Dr. Liz Sockett Interview". thenakedscientists.com. Naked Scientists. 12 December 2004. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ "Predatory Bdellovibrio bacteria-evolution of predation and application of predators against AMR infection". talks.ox.ac.uk. University of Oxford. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ Willis, Alexandra R.; Moore, Christopher; Mazon-Moya, Maria; Krokowski, Sina; Lambert, Carey; Till, Robert; Mostowy, Serge; Sockett, R. Elizabeth (2016). "Injections of Predatory Bacteria Work Alongside Host Immune Cells to Treat Shigella Infection in Zebrafish Larvae". Current Biology. 26 (24): 3343–3351. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.067. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 5196024. PMID 27889262.
  • ^ Anon (2016). "How bacteria attack superbugs". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ "Harnessing the power of predatory bacteria as a 'living antibiotic'". phys.org. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ Kuru, Erkin; Lambert, Carey; Rittichier, Jonathan; Till, Rob; Ducret, Adrien; Derouaux, Adeline; Gray, Joe; Biboy, Jacob; Vollmer, Waldemar (2018-01-08). "Author Correction: Fluorescent d-amino-acids reveal bi-cellular cell wall modifications important for Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus predation". Nature Microbiology. 3 (2): 254. doi:10.1038/s41564-017-0087-1. ISSN 2058-5276. PMID 29311645.
  • ^ "Predatory bacteria that engineer 'portholes' and paint 'frescoes' in harmful bacteria". sciencedaily.com. Retrieved 2018-09-29.
  • ^ "Shadowing the actions of a predator". hfsp.org. Human Frontier Science Program. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ Aizawa, Shin-Ichi (2013). The Flagellar World: Electron Microscopic Images of Bacterial Flagella and Related Surface Structures. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0124172838. OCLC 885024658.
  • ^ Anon (2006). "Peter Wildy Prize Lecture". microbiologysociety.org. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  • ^ "Biology CPD for Science Teachers in the East Midlands: Professor Liz Sockett". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  • ^ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B10.
  • ^ "Liz Sockett | Royal Society". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  • ^ Anon (2017). "Honor for UK-Japanese research". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  • ^ Anon (2006). "Peter Wildy Prize Lecture". microbiologysociety.org. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  • ^ Anon (2000). "Lord Dearing Award winners". nottingham.ac.uk. University of Nottingham. Retrieved 2018-09-23.

  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liz_Sockett&oldid=1103421734"

    Categories: 
    1962 births
    Living people
    British microbiologists
    British women microbiologists
    Academics of the University of Nottingham
    Alumni of the University of Oxford
    Alumni of the University of Leeds
    Alumni of University College London
    Female Fellows of the Royal Society
    Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
    Hidden categories: 
    Pages containing links to subscription-only content
    Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
    Articles with hCards
    All articles with unsourced statements
    Articles with unsourced statements from September 2018
    Articles with unsourced statements from January 2020
    Articles with ISNI identifiers
    Articles with VIAF identifiers
    Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
    Articles with J9U identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles with NTA identifiers
    Articles with ORCID identifiers
    Articles with Scopus identifiers
    Articles with SUDOC identifiers
     



    This page was last edited on 9 August 2022, at 16:38 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki