Nigel Saunders is an academic medical bacteriologist with research interests primarily in bacterial pathogenesis and in functional genomics. He did his initial medical training at the University of Aberdeen (1990), where he developed his interest in Pathology during an intercalated bachelors degree course (1986), his Masters at The University of London in Medical Microbiology (1992), and his PhD at Oxford and the OU in Microbial Pathogenesis (2000).
He did his research and clinical training with a number of people, all of which he is grateful to, including: Professor John G Simpson (Pathology, Aberdeen) and Dr Paul H Whiting (Chemical Pathology, Aberdeen); Professors Oleg Eremin (Surgery, Aberdeen) and Richard Himsworth (Medicine, Aberdeen); Dr Douglas Burden (Microbiology, Birmingham); Professors Jon Cohen and Tom Rogers (Infectious Diseases and Bacteriology, RPMS / Hammersmith Hospital); and Richard Moxon (Oxford). He studied clinical virology on an attachment rotation at CPHL Colindale, in addition to a period in the virology labs at the Hammersmith.
Always wanting to do research, he started this full time in Richard Moxon's Molecular Infection group at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in 1995, where he did his PhD studying neisserial pathogenesis, and where he developed his interests in genomics, supported by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in Medical Microbiology. In 2000 he moved to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, supported by a Wellcome Trust Advanced Research Fellowship, where he set up the Bacterial Pathogenesis and Functional Genomics Group, where he has been since that time. He was made a Departmental Lecturer in 2003, and was given the title of Reader in 2006. He has been a Lecturer and Tutor at several Colleges during his time at Oxford, and is currently a Lecturer at Somerville College, and a Fellow at University College, Oxford.
His main areas of current research interest are the pathogenesis of N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae and the development of tools / treatment for their prevention and treatment. He is also interested in the evolution of virulence and the integration of virulence mechanisms with bacterial physiology, and how bacteria control the expression and coordination of their responses to the host. He is also very interested in the function of host and bacterial cells as integrated 'systems', and the way in which cellular functions are integrated.