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Sir Henry Dale Research Fellow - Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology
Profile
Profile
Dr Rebecca Corrigan first became enthralled by science at school and specialised in microbiology from the mid-point of her undergraduate studies. After a very successful summer placement, which produced two papers, she was certain that a career in scientific research was for her. She ended her PhD with a further four first author papers that helped her secure a postdoc position but, as a naturally shy person, she had to push herself to speak at conferences and international events.
She went on to produce more high impact publications during her postdoc and was able to focus on her enjoyment of bench science, including a funded trip to the US to learn a new technique to bring back to the lab. After one failed attempt, she consulted her supervisor for invaluable help and advice on applying for fellowships, which led to her securing her current five-year role.
“Have courage, get the confidence to talk to your PI about applying for a fellowship and work out where the lines are and where your research - where your autonomy - will begin.”
Career timeline
Career timeline
2004
BA(Mod. Hons) Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
2004-2008
Demonstrating microbiological laboratory techniques to undergraduate students.
2005
Other author paper
Wright, J.S., Traber, K.E., Corrigan, R., Benson, S.A., Musser, J.M. and Novick, R.P. (2005) The agr Radiation: an Early Event in the Evolution of Staphylococci. Journal of Bacteriology, 187(16), 5585-5594.
2007
Speaker at the Gordon Research Conference on Staphylococcal Diseases, Les Diablerets, Switzerland.
First author paper
Corrigan, R.M., Rigby, D., Handley, P. and Foster, T.J. (2007) The role of Staphylococcus aureus surface protein SasG in adherence and biofilm formation. Microbiology, 153(8), 2435-2446.
2007-2008
Wellcome Trust Advanced Source Instructor, Sanger Institute.
2008
PhD, Microbiology. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Other author paper
Traber, K.E., Lee, E., Benson, S., Corrigan, R., Cantera, M., Shopsin, B. and Novick, R.P. (2008) agr function in clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates. Microbiology, 154(8), 2265-2274.
September 2008 to December 2014
Postdoctoral research associate, Imperial College London, UK.
2008-2013
Mentoring PhD students.
2009
First author paper
Corrigan, R.M., Miajlovic, H. and Foster, T.J. (2009) Surface proteins that promote adherence of Staphylococcus aureus to human desquamated nasal epithelial cells. BMC Microbiology, 9(1), 22-22.First author paper
Corrigan, R.M. and Foster, T.J. (2009) An improved tetracycline-inducible expression vector for Staphylococcus aureus. Plasmid, 61(2), 126-129.
2010
Referee for Biomedical Engineering Online.
Joint first author paper
Geoghegan, J.A., Corrigan, R.M., Gruszka, D.T., Speziale, P., O’Gara, J.P., Potts, J.R. and Foster, T.J. (2010) Role of Surface Protein SasG in Biofilm Formation by Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Bacteriology, 192(21), 5663-5673.
2011
Second author paper
Xia, G., Corrigan, R.M., Winstel, V., Goerke, C., Grundling, A. and Peschel, A. (2011) Wall Teichoic Acid-Dependent Adsorption of Staphylococcal Siphovirus and Myovirus. Journal of Bacteriology, 193(15), 4006-4009.Speaker at the Gordon Research conference on Staphylococcal Diseases, Italy.
Second author paper
Wörmann, M.E., Corrigan, R.M., Simpson, P.J., Matthews, S.J. and Gründling, A. (2011) Enzymatic activities and functional interdependencies of Bacillus subtilis lipoteichoic acid synthesis enzymes. Molecular Microbiology, 79(3), 566-583.First author paper
Corrigan, R.M., Abbott, J.C., Burhenne, H., Kaever, V. and Gründling, A. (2011) c-di-AMP Is a New Second Messenger in Staphylococcus aureus with a Role in Controlling Cell Size and Envelope Stress. PLoS Pathogens, 7(9), e1002217-e1002217.
2011-2013
Referee for Acta Biomaterialia.
2012
EMBO Short-Term Fellowship (€6,542.40) - Dr Vincent Lee’s lab, University of Maryland, USA.
Second author paper
Smith, E.J., Corrigan, R.M., van der Sluis, T., Gründling, A., Speziale, P., Geoghegan, J.A. and Foster, T.J. (2012) The immune evasion protein Sbi of Staphylococcus aureus occurs both extracellularly and anchored to the cell envelope by binding lipoteichoic acid. Molecular Microbiology, 83(4), 789-804.
2013
Prize for best speaker at 2013 Staphylococcal GBI conference, Dublin, Ireland.
First author paper
Corrigan, R.M. and Gründling, A. (2013) Cyclic di-AMP: another second messenger enters the fray. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 11(8), 513-524.First author paper
Corrigan, R.M., Campeotto, I., Jeganathan, T., Roelofs, K.G., Lee, V.T. and Grundling, A. (2013) Systematic identification of conserved bacterial c-di-AMP receptor proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(22), 9084-9089.
2014
Referee for Molecular Microbiology.
Speaker at the Young Microbiology Symposium, Dundee, Scotland.
Other author paper
Reichmann, N.T., Piçarra Cassona, C., Monteiro, J.M., Bottomley, A.L., Corrigan, R.M., Foster, S.J., Pinho, M.G. and Gründling, A. (2014) Differential localization of LTA synthesis proteins and their interaction with the cell division machinery in Staphylococcus aureus. Molecular Microbiology, 92(2), 273-286.
2015
Sir Henry Dale Research Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, the University of Sheffield, UK.
Referee for the journal Microbiology.
Level 3 module (Microbial Structure and Dynamics: Genes and Populations).
Invited seminar at the Krebs Institute Symposium, the University of Sheffield, UK.
First author paper
Corrigan, R.M., Bowman, L., Willis, A.R., Kaever, V. and Gründling, A. (2015) Cross-talk between Two Nucleotide-signaling Pathways in Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 290(9), 5826-5839.
2015 to present
PhD supervisor.
2016
First author paper
Corrigan, R., Bellows, L.E., Wood, A. and Grundling, A. (2016) ppGpp negatively impacts ribosome assembly affecting growth and antimicrobial tolerance in Gram-positive bacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.Referee for Scientific Reports.
Other author paper
Schuster, C.F., Bellows, L.E., Tosi, T., Campeotto, I., Corrigan, R.M., Freemont, P. and Grundling, A. (2016) The second messenger c-di-AMP inhibits the osmolyte uptake system OpuC in Staphylococcus aureus. Science Signaling, 9(441).
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