Speakers
Kevin Whitley
Dr Kevin Whitley is a Lecturer in the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology at Newcastle University. Research in his new lab primarily focuses on understanding the molecular mechanism of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis using single-molecule and super-resolution methods. His PhD (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) involved using optical tweezers and single-molecule fluorescence to investigate the elasticity of nucleic acids in vitro, but then as a postdoc he decided to start looking at single molecules in live (bacterial) cells. Kevin's postdoc work (Newcastle University and TU Delft) focused on investigating the molecular mechanism of bacterial cell division using a combination of nanofabrication, microfluidics, and single-molecule microscopy. With his own young group, he is investigating the biosynthesis of cell wall biosynthesis and cell division in the bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum, a model system for the large and understudied phylum Actinobacteria.