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Professor David Minnikin Memorial Lecture: An era of the mycobacterial cell wall lipid biomarkers
Oona Y-C Lee1, Houdini H T Wu2, Gurdyal S Besra3
1Institute of Microbiology and Infection, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom; Coventry Road Medical Centre, Small Heath, Birmingham, B10 0UG, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor David Ernest Minnikin (1939-2021). David was one of the key scientists who pioneered the field of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell envelope research for over half a century. From the classification, identification, and extraction of the unusual lipids of the mycobacterial cell wall, to exploiting them as characteristic lipid biomarkers for sensitive detection, his ideas enlightened a whole world of possibilities within the tuberculosis (TB) field. In addition, his definition of the intricate models now forms a key milestone in our understanding of the M. tuberculosis cell envelope and has resolved many unanswered questions on the evolution of M. tuberculosis.