Drugs and bugs: rational development of novel antibiotics analgesics, and environmentally-friendly insecticides - Glenn King

Professor Glenn King

Research in my laboratory is aimed at the development of novel pharmaceutical agents and environmentally-friendly insecticides. Approximately half of the group is studying bacterial cytokinesis or signalling by bacterial histidine kinases in order to provide a molecular understanding of these key biological processes and to establish a platform for the development of novel antimicrobial agents. The remainder of the group is focused on developing novel antinociceptive agents and environmentally-friendly insecticides by harnessing the remarkable chemical diversity encoded in the venoms of spiders and scorpions. Most research projects are highly interdisciplinary and the experimental techniques employed range from molecular biology through protein chemistry to structure determination using NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Research in the lab is currently funded by three ARC and five NHMRC research grants.


Research Projects

• Development of novel antibiotics targeted against Gram-positive pathogens


• Investigating the architecture and function of the bacterial cell division machinery


• Using tarantula toxins to characterise ion channels involved in sensing pain


• Development of environmentally-friendly insecticides based on spider-venom peptides

Key Publications

Gorbatyuk, V.Y., Nosworthy, N.J., Robson, S.A., Bains, N.P.S., Maciejewski, M.W., dos Remedios, C.G., and King, G.F. (2006). Mapping the phosphoinositide-binding site on chick cofilin explains how PIP2 regulates the cofilin-actin interaction. Molecular Cell 24: 511–522.

Robson, S.A., and King, G.F. (2006). Domain architecture and structure of the bacterial cell division protein DivIB. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 103: 6700–6705.

Sollod, B.L., Wilson, D., Zhaxybayeva, O., Gogarten, J.P., Drinkwater, R., and King, G.F. (2005). Were arachnids the first to use combinatorial peptide libraries? Peptides 26: 131–139.

Rowland, S.L., Burkholder, W.F., Cunningham, K.A., Maciejewski, M.W., Grossman, A.D., and King, G.F. (2004). Structure and mechanism of Sda, an inhibitor of the histidine kinases that regulate initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis. Molecular Cell 13: 689–701.

Szeto, T.H., Rowland, S.L., Rothfield, L.I., and King, G.F. (2002). Membrane localization of MinD is mediated by a C-terminal motif that is conserved across eubacteria, archaea, and chloroplasts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99: 15693–15698.

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