Tanmay Bharat

Tanmay Bharat is a Research Leader and Principal Investigator at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, where he heads the Role of Surface Molecules in Microbial Multicellularity group. His laboratory combines cutting-edge electron cryo-tomography with correlative light and electron microscopy to dissect how surface molecules drive bacterial and archaeal multicellularity and biofilm formation.

Research themes span structural microbiology, cryo-electron tomography method development, and the molecular basis of antibiotic tolerance. By resolving surface architectures from atoms to whole cells, his team reveals universal principles governing microbial community assembly and identifies new therapeutic vulnerabilities against pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

His recent work includes the discovery of membraneless cation channels in ammonia-oxidizing archaea, elucidation of phage tactoid-mediated antibiotic tolerance, and structural characterization of bacterial biofilm scaffolds. These studies are being translated, in collaboration with clinicians, into strategies that disrupt pathogenic biofilms.

Group members:

• Post-doctoral researchers & graduate students: Jan Böhning, Ido Caspy, Camila Clemente, Zephyr Ford, Julia Gordeeva, Buse Isbilir, Kenny Jungfer, Eloise Mawdesley, Hannah Ochner, Olivia Smith, Abul Tarafder, Bogdan Toader, Andriko von Kügelgen, Zhexin (Eric) Wang, Yuexuan Zhang

Contact:
Email: tbharat@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk