Victoria Robinson, Ph.D.

Targeting GTPases for antimicrobial development

Bacteria use an elegant interplay of cellular systems to evaluate their environment and to ensure precise coordination of virulence events. In addition, they have developed clever strategies to avoid host defense mechanisms and guarantee their survival. Consequently, antimicrobial resistance is an increasing concern in the health field, resulting in the demand for new discovery targets and strategies. GTPases are one of the largest and most functionally diverse groups of proteins represented in genomes. Studies have focused primarily on eukaryotic GTPases. Their prokaryotic counterparts, whose functions are essential to numerous cellular processes such as cell viability, protein synthesis and pathogenesis, are not well understood. The goal of my research is to use genetic, biochemical and structural methodologies to study novel families of bacterial GTPases, which have potential as targets for antimicrobial development.