Paprapach Wongdontree

I am a PhD student in the MicrobAdapt team, working on the impact of antibiotics that target the fatty acid synthesis (FASII) pathway in the opportunist pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. FASII inhibitors effectively block fatty acid synthesis. However, bacteria can continue to grow by using environmental lipids that compensate the block. The aim of my thesis is to characterize the mechanisms involved in S. aureus adaptation to FASII inhibitors when lipids are available. So far, we observed the loss and gain of specific cell envelope components during adaptation and uncovered a major role of oxidative stress in determining the speed with which S. aureus adapts to anti-FASII. A potentially important application of this work is to identify drugs that synergize with FASII inhibitors to eliminate S. aureus during infection.