Jessica Zhang

Research/Areas of Interest

Acinetobacter baumannii, a driver of hospital-acquired infections, is a member of the ESKAPE group of pathogens flagged by the WHO as high priority multi-drug resistant threats. Antibiotic persistence is a stepping-stone to evolution of antibiotic resistance and increases disease burden by seeding persistent infections. To better understand persister populations and inform therapeutic strategies able to eliminate them, my thesis work focuses on investigating properties of growth resumption in A. baumannii persister cells.