Lithgow Laboratory
Bacterial Cell Biology
Welcome to the Lithgow Lab
We are working to understand how bacterial cell surfaces dictate antimicrobial resistance, and their vulnerability to bacteriophage and antibodies.
We're part of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, and a member of the Infection Program and the Department of Microbiology.
Professor Trevor Lithgow
My global research connections, partners and funding can be viewed on my Monash Research Profile.
Click the links below to connect with me on LinkedIn, ORCID and Google Scholar. You can follow me on BlueSky @trevor-lithgow.bsky.social.
Our research
Bacterial infections and bacterial contamination are major issues affecting many aspects of health, society and industry. Of most recent global concern is the rise of antimicrobial-resistance (AMR) in bacteria, creating so-called “superbugs”. Fundamental aspects of bacterial cell biology need to be understood, if we are to design new therapies and decontamination procedures that would be cost-effective and environmentally safe. We apply bioinformatics, proteomics and nano-scale imaging technologies to study the molecular and cellular biology of bacteria.
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Imaging bacterial cellscapes at nanoscale.
We isolate bacteria from sites in built or natural environments and use a range of nanoscale methods to view and understand the bacterial cell surface.
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Mathematical modelling of bacterial cells.
Through the ARC Centre of Excellence in the Mathematical Analysis of Cellular SYStems, we are acquiring the ‘omics-level data, molecular analysis and structural biology needed to build virtual bacterial cells for predicting bacterial cell responses to antimicrobial drugs, environmental pollutants and phages.
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Bacteriophage discovery and evolution.
We are surveying diverse environments to discover new phage that kill Klebsiella, Staphylococcus and other bacteria, visualising phage morphology using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) approaches, investigating phage-host interactions by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and determining high-resolution structures using single particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), as well as studying their evolution via comparative genomics and biological experiments.
Lab members
We are committed to excellence in research.
Join Our Lab
We're always interested in collaborating with bright and motivated researchers, clinicians and industry. Whether you want to research, study or partner with us to accelerate our discoveries, find out about the work we do.