Professor Nicola Stanley-Wall FRSE FRSB FEAM SFHEA

Many bacteria spend much of their lives as members of multicellular communities known as biofilms. These highly organised communities enable bacteria to withstand environmental stresses, coordinate collective behaviours and interact with other organisms.

Our research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that underpin bacterial multicellularity using the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis. By combining molecular microbiology, genetics, biochemistry and advanced imaging, we investigate how bacterial communities are assembled, maintained and remodelled.

Over the past two decades, our work has helped reveal how specialised proteins and other extracellular matrix components determine the structure and function of bacterial biofilms. This has included the identification of BslA, a self-assembling bacterial hydrophobin that forms the protective surface layer of the biofilm, and the discovery that the iron-chelating pigment pulcherrimin regulates biofilm expansion by controlling community growth. Together, these studies have provided new insights into how bacterial communities develop, protect themselves and respond to environmental change.

Our research combines fundamental microbiology with interdisciplinary collaborations spanning biophysics, structural biology and quantitative biology. By understanding the principles that govern bacterial multicellularity, we aim to provide knowledge that supports new approaches to controlling harmful biofilms while harnessing beneficial microbial communities in medicine, agriculture and biotechnology.

Selected Publications

• Arnaouteli S$, Bamford NC$, Stanley-Wall NR*, Kovács ÁT*. 2021. “Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation and social interactions”. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 19:600-614. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00540-9  
• Goya ME, Xue F, Sampedro-Torres-Quevedo C, Arnaouteli S, Riquelme-Dominguez L, Romanowski A, Brydon J, Ball K, Stanley-Wall N, Doitsido M. 2020. “Probiotic Bacillus subtilis protects against α-synuclein aggregation in C. elegans”. Cell Reports. 30(2):367-380.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.12.078 
• Sofia Arnaouteli, Daniel Matoz Fernandez, Michael Porter, Margarita Kalamara, James Abbott, Cait E. MacPhee, Fordyce Davidson* and Nicola R. Stanley-Wall*  2019 “Pulcherrimin formation controls growth arrest of the Bacillus subtilis biofilm” PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(27), pp. 13553-13562  doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903982116
• Margarita Kalamara, Mihael Špacapan, Ines Mandic-Mulec *, Nicola R. Stanley-Wall * 2018 “Social behaviours by Bacillus subtilis: quorum sensing, kin discrimination and beyond” Molecular Microbiology vol. 110(6) pp. 863-878. doi: 10.1111/mmi.14127
• Elliot Erskine, Cait MacPhee*, and Nicola R. Stanley-Wall* 2018 “Functional Amyloid and other protein fibers in the biofilm matrix”. Journal of Molecular Biology vol. 430(20) pp 3642-3656 doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2018.07.026 
• Sofia Arnaouteli$, Ana Sofia Ferreira$, Marieke Schor$, Ryan J. Morris, Keith M. Bromley, Jeanyoung K. Jo, Krista L. Cortez, Tetyana Sukhodub, Alan R. Prescott, Lars E. P. Dietrich, Cait E. MacPhee ^, Nicola R. Stanley-Wall ^ 2017 “Bifunctionality Of A Biofilm Matrix Protein Controlled By Redox State” Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114 vol. 30 E6184-E6191 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1707687114.^ Joint corresponding author
• Highlighted Nature Reviews Microbiology 15, pp 512–513 (2017) doi:10.1038/nrmicro.2017.91
• Bromley, K.M., Morris, R.J., Hobley, L., Brandani, G.B., Gillespie, R.M.C., McCluskey, M., Zachariae, U., Marenduzzo, D., Stanley-Wall, N.R.*, and MacPhee, C.E.* 2015 “Interfacial self-assembly of a bacterial hydrophobin” Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110(33):13600-5. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419016112 *Joint corresponding author
• Hobley, L.$, Ostrowski, A.$, Rao, F. $, Bromley, K., Porter, M., Prescott, A., MacPhee, C.E., van Aalten, D.M.F., Stanley-Wall, N.R. 2013 “BslA is a self-assembling bacterial hydrophobin that coats the Bacillus subtilis biofilm” Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences USA vol. 110(33) pp.13600-5 doi:10.1073/pnas.1306390110 *Highlighted by Nature reviews Microbiology and Recommended by F1000.
• Cairns, L.S., Marlow, V. L., Bissett, E., Ostrowski, A., and Stanley-Wall, N.R. 2013 “A mechanical signal transmitted by the flagellum controls signaling in Bacillus subtilis” Molecular Microbiology vol. 90 (1) pp 6-21  doi: 10.1111/mmi.12342 *Subject of a Micro-commentary,
• Highlighted by Nature reviews Microbiology and Recommended by F1000. 

$ These authors contributed equally. 

* Co-corresponding author.

Level 3

BS32036 – “Molecular Genetics” – module contact

• Practical unit using transposon mutagenesis of Bacillus subtilis to learn about genetics, bacterial physiology, and molecular biology.

Level 4

Honours Year – annual project supervisor from 2005-current

Level 5

MSci – project supervisor from 2017-current

Public Engagement

Our laboratory studies how bacteria form biofilms. We worked with the scientific animation company Vivomotion to make an animation that explains what biofilms are and how they impact our everyday lives.

The Stanley-Wall lab actively engages in outreach activities with both school age children and members of the public. Our work has been nationally by prizes from the Society for General Microbiology (2011) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2012, 2022).