Angelika Gründling

Angelika Gründling (born 1972) is an Austrian microbiologist who is Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Imperial College London. Her research considers Staphylococcus aureus, nucleotide signalling and cell wall biosynthesis. She was elected a Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology in 2018.

Early life and education
Gründling completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Vienna. She conducted doctoral research with Ry Young at Texas A&M University. She moved to Harvard Medical School, where she studied the mobility of Listeria monocytogenes supported by an Erwin Schrödinger postdoctoral fellowship. There she investigated the motility of the flagellum in bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Gründling moved to the Schneewind laboratory at the University of Chicago, where she investigated the cell wall of Staphylococcus aureus. As a postdoctoral researcher, she discovered the enzyme needed to make lipoteichoic acid, lipoteichoic acid synthase.

Research and career
In 2007, Gründling joined Imperial College London, where she was promoted to Professor in 2015. Her group study the mechanisms that underpin the growth of Gram-positive bacterial pathogens. She studies the synthesis of cell walls and various pathways for nucleotide signalling in Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes.

She studied membrane function at Harvard Medical School. In particular, Gründling was interested in the mechanisms that underpin the growth of the bacterial membrane. Bacteria are composted of a phospholipid bilayer, mainly composed of phosphatidylglycerol, the enzymes of which have barely been characterised. She used genetic methods to unravel the mechanisms behind lipid transfer within the membrane and to identify the proteins required for membrane construction.

Awards and honours

 * 2009 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Young Investigator Award
 * 2010 Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
 * 2014 Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
 * 2018 Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology