Rachel McKendry

nanomechanics of antibiotics and superbug resistance novel antibiotics mode of action label-free cantilever nanosensors for drug screening and disease diagnostics Contact details: Office: Lab 1 Room 3C6 Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9995 Ext: 39995 Fax: +44 (0)20 7678 0595 Email: r.a.mckendryucl.ac.uk

Research interests

Rachel McKendry is internationally recognised for her application of the tools of nanotechnology to probe chemical and biomolecular interactions. Her research is at the forefront of this rapidly advancing, interdisciplinary field and has resulted in a series of high profile publications in the journals Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA and Journal of the American Chemical Society. Her findings have led to a fundamental new understanding of mechanotransduction at biomolecular interfaces, concepts which underpin the development of novel label-free nanosensing technology for disease diagnostic and drug screening applications.

Recent Publications

1) ‘Nanomechanical detection of antibiotic mucopeptide interactions in a model for superbug drug resistance.’
Ndieyira, W.N, Watari, M., Donoso-Barrera, A., Vogtli, M. Batchelor, M., Zhou, D., Cooper, M., Strunz, T., Abell, C.A., Rayment, T., Aeppli, G. & McKendry R.A. Advance on-line publications Nature Nanotechnology (2008). [Link]
Also featured in the following:

• News and Views Nature Nanotechnology ‘Biosensors: new leverage against superbugs’ [Link]
• BBC ‘Nanotech search for antibiotics’ [Link]
• New Scientist ‘Nano-levers could speed up hunt for superbug drugs’ [Link]
• Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemistry World [Link]

Figure 1: Label-free nanomechanical sensors: speeding up the discovery of new antibiotics to target drug resistant superbugs such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci. (Ndieyira et al Nature Nanotechnology 2008)

Figure 2: Nanomechanical antibiotic percolation on cantilever and in real bacteria: a new framework to investigate drug potency and mechanisms of superbug resistance. (Ndieyira et al Nature Nanotechnology 2008).

2) ‘Physics of nanomechanical cantilever biosensing’
Sushko, M., Shluger A., McKendry R.A., Watari, M.
Advanced Materials On-line (2008). [Link]

3) ‘Investigating the molecular mechanisms of in-plane mechanochemistry on cantilever arrays’
Watari, M., Galbraith, J., Lang, H.P., Sousa, M., Hegner, M., Gerber, C., Horton, M.A., McKendry, R. A.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129, 601 (2007). [Link]

4) Rapid and label-free nanomechanical detection of biomarker transcripts in human RNA’
Zhang, J., Lang, H.P., Huber, F., Bietsch, A., Grange, W., Certa, U., McKendry, R. A., Guntherodt, H.J., Hegner, M. & Gerber, C.
Nature Nanotech. 1, 214 (2006). [Link]

5) ‘Multiple label-free biodetection and quantitative DNA binding assays on a nanomechanical cantilever array’
McKendry, R. A., Zhang, J., Arntz, Y., Strunz, T., Hegner, M., Lang, H-P., Baller, M.K., Certa, U., Guntherodt, H-J & Gerber, C.
Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. U.S.A. 99, 9783-9788 (2002) (Cited 147 times) [Link]

6) Chiral discrimination by chemical force microscopy’
McKendry, R.; Theoclitou, M-E.; Rayment, T. & Abell, C.
Nature 391, 566-568 (1998). (Cited 119 times) [Link]

Biography

 Other activities

• London Centre for Nanotechnology Bionano Graduate Tutor
• Editorial Board of the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal Analyst
• London Technology Network ‘Emerging Medical Technologies’ Advisory Board
• Organised Denmark-UK British Council INYS Meeting
• Organised Swiss-UK Bionano Winterschool Young Achievers Award H. R. H. The Queen, Buckingham Palace