Thamarai Schneiders

Biography

Following her PhD studies at the University of Edinburgh, she moved to Boston, USA to work with Professor Stuart Levy at Tufts University. In Professor Levy’s laboratory her research focussed on the characterising the role of the MarA protein as a transcriptional repressor at different E. coli promoters.Upon her’s return to the UK, she was awarded a New Investigator Research Award (NIRG) from the Medical Research Council to support research into the intrinsic drug resistance regulator, RamA in K. pneumoniae. She was appointed to a lectureship in molecular bacteriology in Queen’s University Belfast and in 2014 took up a position of Senior Lecturer in the Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. Dr Schneiders' group's research into the role of RamA has indicated that its’ role is not limited to conferring a pan drug antimicrobial resistance phenotype but also contributes to biofilm formation in K. pneumoniae. Importantly, their recent work demonstrates that ramA overexpression is key to the multidrug resistance phenotype exhibited by the plant endophyte Kp342 which broadens the relevance of key intrinsic regulators such as RamA beyond the clinical context.

Research Interest

Dr Schneiders' research largely focusses on establishing the role of intrinsic mechanisms that contribute to the evolution of antibiotic resistance, fitness and survival in gram-negative bacteria.