The University of Western Australia

Adj/A/Prof Mohammed Benghezal

Adjunct Associate Professor
School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences

Contact details

Address

School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences
The University of Western Australia (M502)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

9346 2662

Fax

9346 4816

Email

mohammed.benghezal@uwa.edu.au

Location

Room 2.11, L Block, QEII Medical Centre

Biography

Dr Mohammed Benghezal was awarded PhD in Biochemistry in 1996 from University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland. He then received post-doctoral trainings at The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and at The University Medical Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. His last postdoctoral work led to a new technology that he transferred from the Medical Centre to the start-up company Athelas Pty Ltd where he was Head of Genetics and Biochemistry. He relocated to Australia in 2007 and is currently an adjunct Associate Professor at University of Western Australia in the School of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemical Sciences (Microbiology) and the Chief Scientist of Ondek Pty Ltd, a start-up biotech company hosted by UWA.

Key research

Dr Benghezal has proven skills in microbial pathogenesis, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, cell biology and in biotechnology such as high throughput technologies. One of his important discoveries is the use of the simple amoeba model to study bacterial virulence and the identification of a new class of anti-infective molecules targeting bacterial virulence. In addition to the development of an innovative delivery technology based on H. pylori, he has a strong interest in investigating H. pylori pathogenesis. In particular interest is the interplay with phagocytes and its possible role in eliciting a non-protective immune response. The current grant aims understand the molecular mechanisms of persistence of H. pylori by looking at early colonisation events.

Publications

The secreted Helicobacter cysteine-rich protein A causes adherence of human monocytes and differentiation into a macrophage-like phenotype.
Dumrese, C., Slomianka, L., Ziegler, U., Choi, S. S., Kalia, A., Fulurija, A., Lu, W., Berg, D. E., Benghezal, M., Marshall, B., and Mittl, P. R. (2009). FEBS Lett 583, 1637-1643.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence genes identified in a Dictyostelium host model
Alibaud, L., Kohler, T., Coudray, A., Prigent-Combaret, C., Bergeret, E., Perrin, J., Benghezal, M., Reimmann, C., Gauthier, Y., van Delden, C., et al. (2008). Cell Microbiol 10, 729-740.

Control of cellular physiology by TM9 proteins in yeast and dictyostelium
Froquet, R., Cherix, N., Birke, R., Benghezal, M., Cameroni, E., Letourneur, F., Mosch, H. U., De Virgilio, C., and Cosson, P. (2008). J Biol Chem.

The Gup1 homologue of Trypanosoma brucei is a GPI glycosylphosphatidylinositol remodelase
Jaquenoud, M., Pagac, M., Signorell, A., Benghezal, M., Jelk, J., Butikofer, P., and Conzelmann, A. (2008). Mol Microbiol 67, 202-212.

SLC1 and SLC4 encode partially redundant acyl-coenzyme A 1-acylglycerol-3-phosphate O-acyltransferases of budding yeast
Benghezal, M., Roubaty, C., Veepuri, V., Knudsen, J., and Conzelmann, A. (2007). J Biol Chem 282, 30845-30855.

Inhibitors of bacterial virulence identified in a surrogate host model
Benghezal, M.., Adam, A., Lucas, A., Burn, C., Orchard, M., Deuschel, C., Braillard, S., Valentino, E., Paccaud, J.P., Cosson, P (2006) Cell Microbiol 9, 1336-1342.

An Integrin-related Adhesion Molecule in Free-living Amoebae
Cornillon, S., Gebbie, L., Benghezal, M., Nair, P., Keller, S., Charette, S., Brückert, F., Letourneur, F., Cosson, P. (2006) EMBO Rep 7, 617-621.

Specific host genes required for the killing of Klebsiella bacteria by phagocytes
Benghezal, M., Fauvarque, M.O., Tournebize, R., Froquet, R., Marchetti, A., Bergeret, E., Lardy, B., Klein, G., Sansonetti, P., Charette, S., Cosson, P. (2006) Cell. Microbiol., 8(1), 139-48.

Phg2, a kinase involved in adhesion and focal site modeling in Dictyostelium
*Gebbie, L., *Benghezal, M., Cornillon, S., Froquet, R., Cherix, N., Malbouyres, M., Lefkir, Y., Grangeasse, C., Fache, S., Dalous, J., Bruckert, F., Letourneur, F., Cosson, P. (2004), Mol. Biol. Cell., 15(8):3915-25. *Equal authors.

Funding received

• 2007 Successful Commercial Ready grant for Ondek Pty Ltd from Ausindustry
•1998 Human Frontier Science Long Term Fellowship
•1997 Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship

Honours and awards

• 2005, 45th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICACC, Washington), Committee Award in Microbial Pathogenesis.
• 1997, Vigener prize of the Science Faculty of Fribourg University for the best PhD Thesis.

Teaching

Dr Benghezal is currently supervising 2 PhD students, in addition to the supervision of Ondek’s scientific team (3 RAs, 6 postdocs ands one Senior Scientist). He also does the occasional lecture for the Marshall Centre of infectious disease and training.

Research profile

Research profile and publications