Meet our new Pasteur - Oxford PhD Students
In October 2024, two new PhD students joined the Pasteur campus to start their joint Pasteur-Oxford PhD researching ways to better tackle the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance.
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Maria Camila Klaiss Luna and Leonardo Gonzalez-Smith will be undertaking research between the labs at Insitut Pasteur and the University of Oxford to better understand why microbials are becoming resistant to human engineered drugs and what new therapeutics we might be able to develop to stop this 'silent pandemic'...
Maria Camila Klaiss Luna
I am Maria Camila Klaiss Luna, I come from Medellin, Colombia where I finished my formation as a Chemist and I recently joined Institute Pasteur for my PhD within the PPU-Oxford program. I chose to belong to this program due to the pioneering work of these world-leading institutions, Institut Pasteur and University of Oxford, that cooperate to link chemistry and biology to develop innovative therapeutic treatments and generate an impact in fighting human diseases.
Particularly, in my PhD project “Energetics of CyaA toxin translocation across the plasma membrane of target cells” I study the molecular mechanism of the adenylate cyclase toxin (CyaA) produced by Bordetella pertussis, specifically the translocation of the catalytic domain in target cells because it will provide more understanding about its mechanism of infection, but it also will provide valuable information that would potentially improve current CyaA-based antigen delivery vehicles as novel vaccine strategies towards cancer and antibacterial immunotherapies.
Leonardo Gonzalez-Smith
I am a first year PhD student within Pasteur-Paris University International doctoral program​ (PPU) working on the intersection of microbe-host interactions under the Guidance of Dr. Mélanie Hamon. Being a California native, I was excited yet nervous about such a big transition to working in Europe. However, the international embrace of scientific exchange exemplified at Institut Pasteur and University of Oxford has been extremely supportive.
My current project works with the bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is known to cause serious diseases such as pneumoniae, meningitis, and otitis media. Besides being an invasive pathogen, it is mainly a natural colonizer of our nasopharynx. Understanding how this bacteria makes a transition from a natural colonizer to an invasive pathogen is still unknown. My project looks to understand what bacterial factors are responsible for this transition, and also how these factors are causing changes to the host epigenome that allow for a competitive advantage in further infections. This research could pave the way for developing potential antimicrobial agents that will aid in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
The focus on international collaboration and my project's emphasis on AMR mechanisms made the Pasteur-Oxford joint collaboration the perfect choice. Pasteur’s focus on understanding the bacterial mechanisms of infection while leveraging Oxford’s expertise in chemical development would allow me to inhibit the bacterial mechanisms that make S. pneumoniae more invasive. I am excited to participate in such a high-caliber collaboration between Institut Pasteur and Oxford University.
