Rate My Professor David Grainger

Professor David Grainger is Professor of Molecular Microbiology in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham. He obtained his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham in 1999, followed by a PGCE from the University of Wolverhampton in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2004. After his doctorate, he served as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Birmingham, developing high-throughput techniques to map gene regulatory events in bacteria. In 2008, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship, which allowed him to establish his independent research group at the University of Warwick. He relocated his laboratory to the University of Birmingham in March 2011, where his research now centers on bacterial chromosome biology in pathogenic species.

Grainger's academic interests encompass mechanisms of DNA folding, chromosome-wide gene regulation, pathogen-host interactions, and molecular pathways leading to antibiotic resistance, with a focus on organisms such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella. His group employs advanced techniques including single-molecule analysis and high-throughput mapping of DNA binding events. He has secured substantial funding from the Wellcome Trust, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and Leverhulme Trust, including an eight-year Wellcome Trust grant in 2025 to investigate superbug evolution. Notable awards include the Biochemical Society Colworth Medal in 2016 and the Microbiology Society Fleming Prize Lecture in the same year. Key publications feature 'Activation of bacterial transcription by distortion of promoter base pairing' (Nucleic Acids Research, 2026), 'The bacterial RNA polymerase-associated CarD protein couples promoter activity to DNA supercoiling' (Nature Communications, 2026), 'H-NS is a bacterial transposon capture protein' (Nature Communications, 2024), and 'Coordination of cell envelope biology by Escherichia coli MarA protein potentiates intrinsic antibiotic resistance' (PLOS Genetics, 2025). Grainger serves on the editorial board of Nucleic Acids Research and leads teaching modules on microbial genomics and omics of pathogens.