B.Sc. (Hons) Medical Biochemistry Ph.D. Molecular Microbiology and Drug Discovery Lecturer in Microbiology, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University Tres Cantos Open Lab Foundation (TCOLF) Research Fellow, GSK, Madrid Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of Birmingham

My research interests surround the discovery of new antibiotics and identifying the exact mechanism by which those antibiotics kill bacteria. Finding new “mechanisms of action” reveals new drug targets that can be exploited in the battle against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR accounts for around 700,000 deaths per annum globally and that number is predicted to rise to 10 million by 2050. The current economic burden of AMR is estimated to be at least €1.5 billion per year in the EU. New antibiotics and an improved understanding of how to use them will help to slow the progression of AMR, saving countless lives in the future.

Abrahams KA*, Cox JAG*, Spivey VL, Loman NJ, Pallen MJ, et al. (2012) Identification of Novel Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine Inhibitors Targeting M. tuberculosis QcrB. PLoS ONE 7(12): e52951. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052951 *These authors contributed equally to this work Gurcha S, Veeraraghavan U, Cox JAG, Futterer K, Abrahams K, Bhatt A, Alderwick L, Reynolds R, Loman N, Alemparte C, Barros D, Lloyd A, Ballell L and Besra G (2014). Biochemical and structural characterization of mycobacterial aspartyl-tRNA synthetase AspS. PLoS ONE 9(11): e113568. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113568 Mugumbate G, Abrahams KA, Cox JAG, Papadatos G, van Westen G, et al. (2015) Mycobacterial Dihydrofolate Reductase Inhibitors Identified Using Chemogenomic Methods and In Vitro Validation. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0121492. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121492 Jankute M, Cox JAG, Harrison J and Besra G (2015). Assembly of the mycobacterial wall. Annual Review of Microbiology 69:405-423 Cox JAG*, Abrahams K*, Alemparte C, Ghidelli-Disse S, Rullas J, Singh A, Gurcha S, Nataraj V, Remui?an M, Encinas L, Jervis P, Bhatt A, Kruse U, Bantscheff M, Fütterer K, Barros D, Ballell L, Drewes G and Besra G (2016). Target assignment of THPP inhibitors reveals EchA6 as an essential fatty acid shuttle in mycobacteria. Nature Microbiology 1(15006): doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2015.6 Abrahams KA, Chung C, Ghidelli-Disse S, Rullas J, Rebollo-Lopez M, Gurcha SS, Cox JAG et al. (2016). A new anti-tubercular scaffold targets KasA with a novel mode of action. Nature Communications 7(12581):doi:10.1038/ncomms12581