18 Facts About Tracy Palmer

Tracy Palmer is known for her work on the twin-arginine translocation pathway.

Tracy Palmer was brought up in the steel town of Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire where she attended Stocksbridge High School.

Tracy Palmer attended the University of Birmingham where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry in 1988 followed by a PhD in 1992 for research investigating the enzyme kinetics of the proton pumping transhydrogenase from photosynthetic bacteria.

Tracy Palmer was inspired by the work of Peter D Mitchell and his work on chemiosmosis during her PhD.

Tracy Palmer was one of the co-discoverers of the bacterial Tat protein secretion system.

Tracy Palmer's group has demonstrated for the first time that the T7SS is involved in interbacterial competition by showing that the S aureus T7SS secretes a large nuclease toxin, which inhibits the growth of closely related S aureus strains.

At that time Tracy Palmer was studying 'Protein FA' - the factor d'association needed for the final step in molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide biosynthesis.

Tracy Palmer purified the protein and identified it as the product of the mobA gene.

From 1993 to 1996, Tracy Palmer was an independent University Research Fellow at the University of Dundee leading a study into the anaerobic metabolism of Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

In 1996, Tracy Palmer was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, which was administered by the University of East Anglia in Norwich while Tracy Palmer's new research group was based in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre.

In 2004, Tracy Palmer was awarded a MRC Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellowship and was promoted to a personal chair in molecular microbiology by the University of East Anglia.

In 2007, Tracy Palmer was recruited back to the University of Dundee to take up a new position in the College of Life Sciences.

Tracy Palmer was head of the Division of Molecular Microbiology at Dundee from 2009 to 2017, before leaving to join Newcastle University in 2018.

Tracy Palmer has served the microbiology community in multiple ways, including previously serving as Editor for Microbiology and Molecular Microbiology.

Tracy Palmer is currently Chair of a Research Appointments Panel at The Royal Society.

Tracy Palmer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2009, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

Tracy Palmer was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 1996.

In 2021, Tracy Palmer was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.