Affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA

Dr. Kaderabkova is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Despoina Mavridou’s lab in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin. During her doctoral work at the Imperial College London, they have shown that oxidative protein folding is critical to the functionality of numerous antimicrobial resistance (AMR) determinants. Disruption of native disulfide bonds in b-lactamase enzymes and mobile colistin resistance proteins allows re-sensitizations of Gram-negative pathogens to previously unusable antibiotics. Her current research builds on this work with three main aims: (i) to expand our understanding of how the oxidative protein folding supports the evolution of b-lactamase enzymes and thus b-lactam resistance, (ii) to unravel the nuances behind these resistance mechanisms with the aim to clarify cross-resistance or cross-sensitivities with other potential antimicrobials, and (iii) to identify the sources and underlying mechanisms that support the dissemination of functional and potential resistance proteins across bacterial species. To address these aims, she combines experimental evolution, molecular biology, and microbiology to build robust protocols in model laboratory strains and transfer the acquired knowledge to study resistance in clinical isolates associated with chronic multidrug resistant communities.