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Committee staff

Dr Charles Winterhalter

Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow

  • Telephone: 0191 208 7702
  • Address: Biosciences Institute
    Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, R.2.04
    Baddiley-Clark building
    Richardson Road
    Â鶹´«Ã½
    NE2 4AX
Background

Current lab members

  • Caroline Elaine (MRes student)
  • James Grimshaw (Microscopy Specialist Technician - Wellcome Trust)
  • Rosie Harrison (PhD student - MRC DiMeN)
  • Amandeep Kaur (Technical Scientific Officer - Wellcome Trust)
  • Amy Tooke (Postdoctoral Research Associate - Wellcome Trust)
  • Arina Yakupova (UG student - Â鶹´«Ã½ Research Scholarship)
  • Natasha Yeap (PhD student starting October 2026 - BBSRC NEEDL)

We often find ways to support talented scientists from all career stages, please contact Charles if you would like to discuss potential positions and opportunities to join the team.

Past lab members: Gauri Paduthol (PhD student - EMBO).

Alumni: Theodora Galazi, Kirthi Parameswaran, Oleg Klementiev, Zama Shiaar, Elizabeth Cordell.


Research career and awards

  • BBSRC NEEDL PhD studentship (starting October 2026)
  • Â鶹´«Ã½ Research Scholarship (present)
  • EMBO Scientific Exchange Grant (host lab, 2026)
  • MRC DiMeN PhD studentship (2025 - present)
  • Royal Society Research Grant (2024 - 2025)
  • Royal Society Partnership Grant (2024 - 2025)
  • Microbiology Society Harry Smith Vacation Studentship (2024)
  • Wellcome Trust Early-Career Award (2022 - present)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate (2019 - 2023, Murray lab)
  • Research Assistant (2017 - 2019, Murray lab)
  • PhD Candidate (2014 - 2017, Krasnogor lab)
  • Research Assistant (2013 - 2014, Elati lab)
  • Erasmus Visiting Researcher (2013)


Education

  • PhD in Synthetic Biology (University of Â鶹´«Ã½, UK)
  • Master of Science, Systems and Synthetic Biology (Évry Paris-Saclay University, France & University of Nottingham, UK)
  • Maitrise of Science, Bioengineering and Computer Science (Évry Paris-Saclay University, France)
  • Bachelor of Science, Biological Sciences (University Henri Poincare/Évry Paris-Saclay University, France)


List of publications on Google Scholar: .

Research

I am a Wellcome Trust Early-Career Fellow working on bacterial DNA damage repair mechanisms at the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (Faculty of Medical Sciences / Biosciences Institute). My lab specialises in deciphering fundamental DNA damage repair mechanisms in Gram-positive bacteria employing Bacillus subtilis as model organism and Staphylococcus aureus as model pathogen.


Bacterial infections are a global health threat and pathogens become increasingly resistant to our last-resort antimicrobials. Treatment with several classes of antibiotics leads to generation of reactive oxygen species causing DNA damage such as single- and double-strand DNA breaks, and these lesions can lead to cell death if not repaired. However, bacteria can evade DNA damage and at present, we lack a full understanding of the critical repair pathways underpinning this process.


The Winterhalter lab aims to uncover the full repertoire of essential proteins involved in DNA repair in bacterial model organisms/pathogens and to determine the critical interactions leading to damage repair. Driven by fundamental science, we also investigate the requirement of repair pathways for virulence and their potential to be targeted by small molecule inhibitors. In the future, these essential repair processes could serve as efficient targets for alternative antimicrobial drug development.

Teaching
  • CMB3000 - Undergraduate Research project
  • MMB8098 - MRes Research project
Publications

  • Articles

    • Guyet A, Ruiz Campoy R, Manja P, Schramm FD, Pelliciari S, Fenyk S, Li Y, Winterhalter C, Ilangovan A, Murray H. Bacillus subtilis DnaB forms multiple protein-protein interactions essential for DNA replication initiation. Nucleic Acids Research 2026. In Press.
    • Winterhalter C, Stratton KJ, Fenyk S, Murray H. . Nature Communications 2025, 16, 11633.
    • Gaimster H, Stevens D, Grimshaw J, Hubbard J, Mickiewicz K, Murray H, Winterhalter C. . Microbiology 2025, 171(11), 001633.
    • Winterhalter C, Pelliciari S, Stevens D, Fenyk S, Marchand E, Cronin N, Soultanas P, Costa T, Ilangovan A, Murray H. . Nucleic Acids Research 2023, 51(9), 4322-4340.
    • Pelliciari S, Bodet-Lefevre S, Fenyk S, Stevens D, Winterhalter C, Schramm FD, Pintar S, Burnham DR, Merces G, Richardson TT, Tashiro Y, Hubbard J, Yardimci H, Ilangovan A, Murray H. . Nature Communications 2023, 14(1), 8339.
    • Winterhalter C, Stevens D, Fenyk S, Pelliciari S, Marchand E, Soultanas P, Ilangovan A, Murray H. . Nucleic Acids Research 2023, 51(9), 4302-4321.
    • Tellechea-Luzardo J, Winterhalter C, Widera P, Kozyra J, de Lorenzo V, Krasnogor N. . ACS synthetic biology 2020, 9(3), 536-545.
    • Martin E, Williams HEL, Pitoulias M, Stevens D, Winterhalter C, Craggs TD, Murray H, Searle MS, Soultanas P. . Nucleic Acids Research 2019, 47(4), 2101-2112.
    • Winterhalter C, Nicolle R, Louis A, To C, Radvanyi F, Elati M. . Bioinformatics 2014, 30(23), 3419-3420.
    • Winterhalter C, Widera P, Krasnogor N. . Bioinformatics 2014, 30(7), 1029-1030.

  • Book Chapter

    • Gaimster H, Winterhalter C, Koh A, Murray H. . In: Leake M, ed. Chromosome Architecture. Berlin: Springer Nature, 2022, pp.263-276.

  • Software

    • Winterhalter C. . [program]. Zenodo, 2025.
    • Winterhalter C, Murray H. . [program]. Geneva: Zenodo, 2021.
    • Winterhalter C, Nicolle R, Louis A, To C, Radvanyi F, Elati M. PEPPER. [program]. Cytoscape, 2014.
    • Winterhalter C, Widera P, Krasnogor N. JEPETTO. [program]. Cytoscape, 2014.