Professor Stephen Uphoff presents Hilary Term's New College Conversation

Stephan Uphoff, Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, gave a talk entitled Evolution under the Microscope: Watching the Molecular Processes that Drive Adaptation of Bacteria in Response to Stress for the 39th edition of the New College Conversation. 

Members of New College's SCR, MCR, and JCR attended the talk in the McGregor Matthews Room in February, which was followed by a small drinks reception courtesy of the Warden. 

Each term, the New College Conversation invites a guest speaker from College to give a talk about their research to students and fellows.

About the speaker

Stephen Uphoff is Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at New College. He sees himself as an interdisciplinary scientist, applying tools and approaches from across the natural sciences to understand fundamental biological processes. He studied physics as an undergraduate in Göttingen and came to Oxford for an MSc and a DPhil in biophysics. After a period of postdoctoral research in the field of systems biology at Harvard Medical School, Stephen returned to Oxford where he leads a research group in the Biochemistry Department. He previously held a Research Fellowship at Jesus College, and a Junior Research Fellowship at St John’s College.

About the talk

Bacteria have a remarkable capacity to thrive in adverse environments. These microbes can rapidly modify their behaviour to become stress tolerant and evolve genetic changes that lead to heritable stress resistance. The antibiotic resistance crisis is fuelled by these mechanisms. Much could be learnt if we could simply look at what is happening at the molecular scale inside bacteria as they are evolving over time. In my talk, I will highlight my group’s development of microscopy methods that allow us to watch how individual bacteria respond to environmental challenges. With these methods, we can zoom in and even resolve the movement of single molecules inside living cells. Our findings reveal previously hidden mechanisms of stress adaptation, which may inform new strategies for the treatment of bacterial infections.