Dr Ali Ryan

Through my work at the University of Oxford and at Kingston University I have been worked on projects in a range of subject areas including molecular and applied microbiology, cancer biology, immunology and heart disease.

My main projects focus on the bacterial azoreductases, flavoenzymes found in most bacterial pathogens e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and MRSA. Azoreductase research primarily focuses on their use in bioremediation of wastewater from the textile industry which is frequently contaminated with high levels of potentially toxic azo dyes. My interest is in their physiological function as although they are found in bacteria, archaea and mammals little is known of their function in the bacterial cell. We are currently persuing the mechanism underlying their role in resistance to a range of clinically important antibiotics. This combined with their role in bacterial pathogenicity makes them interesting targets for combination therapies to treat multidrug resistant pathogens.

Five of the six most commonly used artificial food colourings used worldwide are azo dyes. Consumption of AFCs by children has been controversial since the 1970s and a study by researchers in Southampton in 2007 linking their consumption to ADHD lead to calls for their ban. Azoreductases expressed by bacteria in the gut play an important role in the breakdown of AFCs to produce toxic aromatic amines. I am part of an international consortium studying the mechanism underlying their metabolism.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• P02 Uncovering the role of NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductases in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: new avenues for antibiotic potentiators, Stylianou, C., Saleh, W., Ivanov, B., Holland, S., Crescente, V., Polycarpou, E., Sim, E., Saunders, N., Ryan, A. 4 Dec 2025, In: JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance
• Fusarium verticillioides NAT1 (FDB2) N‐malonyltransferase is structurally, functionally and phylogenetically distinct from its N‐acetyltransferase (NAT) homologues, Karagianni, E., Kontomina, E., Lowe, E., Athanasopoulos, K., Papanikolaou, G., Garefalaki, V., Kotseli, V., Zaliou, S., Grimaud, T., Arvaniti, K., Tsatiri, M., Fakis, G., Glenn, A., Roversi, P., Abuhammad, A., Ryan, A., Sim, R., Sim, E., Boukouvala, S. 1 May 2023, In: FEBS Journal
• Preparation, analysis and toxicity characterisation of the redox metabolites of the azo food dye tartrazine, Pay, R., Sharrock, A., Elder, R., Marie, A., Bracegirdle, J., Torres, D., Malone, N., Vorster, J., Kelly, L., Ryan, A., Josephy, P., Allen-Vercoe, E., Ackerley, D., Keyzers, R., Harvey, J. 1 Dec 2023, In: Food and Chemical Toxicology
• Synthesis and Initial Evaluation of a Novel Fluorophore for Selective FMDV 3C Protease Detection, Malik, S., Sinclair, A., Ryan, A., Le Gresley, A. 7 Aug 2020, In: Molecules
• Potential Use of the Maillard Reaction for Pharmaceutical Applications: Gastric and Intestinal Controlled Release Alginate-Albumin Beads, Khoder, M., Gbormoi, H., Ryan, A., Karam, A., Alany, R. 15 Feb 2019, In: Pharmaceutics
• Variant Signal Peptides of Vaccine Antigen, FHbp, Impair Processing Affecting Surface Localization and Antibody-Mediated Killing in Most Meningococcal Isolates, Da Silva, R., Karlyshev, A., Oldfield, N., Wooldridge, K., Bayliss, C., Ryan, A., Griffin, R. 19 Dec 2019, In: Frontiers in Microbiology
• Comparative analysis of xenobiotic metabolising N-acetyltransferases from ten non-human primates as in vitro models of human homologues, Tsirka, T., Konstantopoulou, M., Sabbagh, A., Crouau-roy, B., Ryan, A., Sim, E., Boukouvala, S., Fakis, G. Dec 2018, In: Scientific Reports
• Expression and regulation of type 2A protein phosphatases and alpha4 signalling in cardiac health and hypertrophy, Eleftheriadou, O., Boguslavskyi, A., Longman, M., Cowan, J., Francois, A., Heads, R., Wadzinski, B., Ryan, A., Shattock, M., Snabaitis, A. 1 Jul 2017, In: Basic Research in Cardiology
• Investigation of the mycobacterial enzyme HsaD as a potential novel target for anti-tubercular agents using a fragment-based drug design approach, Ryan, A., Polycarpou, E., Lack, N., Evangelopoulos, D., Sieg, C., Halman, A., Bhakta, S., Eleftheriadou, O., McHugh, T., Keany, S., Lowe, E., Ballet, R., Abuhammad, A., Jacobs, W., Ciulli, A., Sim, E. 5 Apr 2017, In: British Journal of Pharmacology
• The role of apolipoprotein N-acyl transferase, Lnt, in the lipidation of factor H binding protein of Neisseria meningitidis strain MC58 and its potential as a drug target: Investigating the role of Lnt in N. meningitidis, Da Silva, R., Churchward, C., Karlyshev, A., Eleftheriadou, O., Snabaitis, A., Longman, M., Ryan, A., Griffin, R. 1 Jul 2017, In: British Journal of Pharmacology

• Christina Stylianou Investigating the Effect of NAD(P)H Quinone Oxidoreductases in Antibiotic Resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Start Date: 01/10/2023
• Christina Stylianou Investigating the Effect of NAD(P)H Quinone Oxidoreductases in Antibiotic Resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Start Date: 01/10/2023 End Date: 17/10/2025

• Biophysics PhD August 31 2008
• Biochemistry BSc (Hons) July 04 2004

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Researchgate Profile