How Gram-negative bacteria build their cell envelope to fight antibiotic resistance.
Welcome to the Webby Lab at the University of Warwick! We’re fascinated by how Gram-negative bacteria build and maintain their protective outer shell, known as the cell envelope. This remarkable structure not only shields bacteria from their environment and enables adaptation, but also plays a major role in the development of antibiotic resistance, which is one of today’s greatest global health challenges. Our goal is to uncover the molecular secrets behind this remarkable structure and identify new targets to inspire novel antibacterial strategies.
We take a multidisciplinary approach, combining structural biology (single particle cryo-EM and cryo-electron tomography), protein biochemistry, microbiology, and advanced imaging to investigate the protein machines that build and maintain the bacterial envelope. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of our work, we have many fantastic Collaborators and are proud to be part of the Howard Dalton Centre, WISBIC, WAMIC, and the Microbiology & Infection research group at Warwick. Using a pipeline that spans from the atomic to cellular scale allows us to watch how protein complexes, the bacterial envelope “construction teams” assemble, interact, and coordinate their activity to ensure the envelope forms correctly and remains intact, securing bacteria survival.
We’re a friendly, curious group who enjoy asking big questions about small organisms. Whether you’re a student eager to learn, a postdoc looking to take the next step in an interdisciplinary environment, or a collaborator with complementary ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Come explore the bacterial frontier with us!
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Melissa completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a PhD in structural biology with Richard Kingston, studying viral replication proteins. She then did postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford with Colin Kleanthous, where she discovered a passion for bacterial cell envelopes and combined structural biology with complementary techniques. A short postdoc with Lindsay Baker in 2024 introduced her to cryo-electron tomography. In July 2025, she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award and established the Webby Lab at the School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick.