I completed my undergraduate BSc (Honours) degree at the University of Sydney in Australia before moving to the University of Technology Sydney where I completed my PhD in 2014. My PhD focused on understanding the role of small signalling molecules in biofilm expansion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In 2014 I was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship to move to the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial College London. My research during this time was focused on understanding how the type VI secretion system (T6SS) of P. aeruginosa impacts upon biofilm community composition and also on identifying novel naturally validated antibacterial targets for therapeutic development. In August 2019 I was awarded an Imperial College Research Fellowship to start my own research group at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. In 2022 I was awarded a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship which allowed me to move to the Quadram Institute in February 2023. My research focuses on understanding how bacteria form complex communities called biofilms and how bacterial interactions shape population profile dynamics within these communities.

Key publications

“Laura M. Nolan, Amy K. Cain, Thomas Clamens, R. Christopher D. Furniss, Eleni Manoli, Maria A. Sainz-Polo, Gordon Dougan, David Albesa-Jové, Julian Parkhill, Despoina A. I. Mavridou and Alain Filloux (2021) Identification of Tse8 as a Type VI secretion system toxin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa that targets the bacterial transamidosome to inhibit protein synthesis in prey cells. Nature Microbiology, 6, 1199–1210. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00950-8.

Amelia L. Hynen, James J. Lazenby, George M. Savva, Laura C. McCaughey, Lynne Turnbull, Laura M. Nolan* and Cynthia B. Whitchurch* (2021) Multiple holins contribute to extracellular DNA release in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. Microbiology, 167(2):000990 *Equal author contribution. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.000990.

Laura M. Nolan, Lynne Turnbull, Marilyn Katrib, Sarah R. Osvath, Davide Losa, James J. Lazenby and Cynthia B. Whitchurch (2020) Pseudomonas aeruginosa is capable of natural transformation in biofilms. Microbiology, 166(10):995-1003. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.000956.

Thomas E. Wood, Andreas Förster, Eleni Manoli, Laura M. Nolan, Sophie A. Howard, Abderrahman Hachani, Richard Hayward, Paul S. Freemont and Alain Filloux (2019) The Pseudomonas aeruginosa T6SS delivers a periplasmic toxin disrupting bacterial cell morphology. Cell Reports, 29(1):187-201.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.08.094.

Laura M. Nolan, Cynthia B. Whitchurch, Lars Barquist, Marilyn Katrib, Christine J. Boinett, Matthew Mayho, David Goulding, Ian G. Charles, Alain Filloux, Julian Parkhill and Amy K. Cain (2018) A global genomic approach uncovers novel components for twitching motility-mediated biofilm expansion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Microbial Genomics, 4(11):e000229. https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000229.