Abstract #476

# 476
Lactococcal lantibiotics and bioengineering thereof.
P. D. Cotter*1,2, 1Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland, 2APC Microbiome Institute, Cork, Ireland.

The traditional approaches to finding “new” bacteriocins have relied on conventional microbiology-based techniques. This has yielded several bacteriocins, including class I bacteriocins (or lantibiotics) from Lactococcus. Of these, nisin has been most extensively characterized. However, in recent years the potential applications of these natural food preservatives has been even further expanded through the use of (bio)engineering. The latest developments with respect to lactococcal lantibiotics and bioengineering thereof will be described during the course of this presentation.

Key Words: Lactococcus, lantibiotic, bioengineering

Speaker Bio
Dr Paul Cotter is Principal Research Officer and Head of the Food Biosciences Department at Teagasc Food Research Centre at Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Ireland. He is a molecular microbiologist, with researchers in his lab focusing particularly on the study of microbial populations in the food chain and in the gut and of antimicrobial peptides/food preservatives. Dr Cotter also manages the Teagasc DNA sequencing facility. Dr Cotter’s laboratory have twice been winners of the Irish Food/Agriculture Laboratory of the Year Award, he has received awards from the Society for Applied Microbiology, ESCMID and FEMS, is an appointed faculty member of Faculty of 1000 (Biology) since 2006 and is a Principal Investigator with the APC Microbiome Institute since 2009. Dr Cotter is also the author of >200 peer-reviewed publications resulting from research funded by the EU, Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology.