Christina Egami, Caison Warner and Manel Camps presented our laboratory’s work at the International Symposium on Plasmid Biology 2024 in Hamamatsu, Japan. Our two plenary talks and posters were very well received and we made important connections with diverse leading labs in the field of plasmid biology.
September 8, 2024
Recent alum, Neo Peng, presented our laboratory’s work on fluoroquinolone resistance at the 6th International Caparica Conference in Antibiotic Resistance 2024. He was awarded an Excellence Shotgun Poster Prize!
August 15, 2024
Amanda completed her Ph.D. degree in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, which a concentration in Microbiology. Her thesis’ title is: “Investigations in molecular evolution: the role of prion amyloids as conduits of conformational information in archaea and the role of individual fluoroquinolones as drivers of target modification resistance mutations in uropathogenic E. coli”. She earned multiple awards and fellowships during her PhD, including the Yale Ciencia, Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS), and UC-Doctoral Diversity Initiative (UC-DDI) awards.
Amanda is currently completing a postdoc in Dr. Bohorquez’s laboratory at Duke University.
Congratulations, Dr. Amanda Carbajal!
July 30, 2024
Our recent alumna, Keerthana Sivakumar, has been accepted to the Masters of Molecular Science and Software Engineering program at the University of California, Berkeley, which is ranked #1 for both chemistry and computer science graduate programs. She is eager to pursue scientific inquiries through software engineering and machine learning. She is looking forward to her next academic journey and starting her master’s program in Fall 2024!
April 20, 2024
Undergraduate student, Neo Peng, has been offered admission to the Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (PhD) at Oregon Health & Science University. He is planning to pursue research towards the cure for HIV at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, which is one of the 7 nationally ranked primate research centers in the US. He is excited to start his PhD program in Fall 2024 at OHSU!
March 22, 2024
Christina Egami and Caison Warner were both awarded a bursary from the International Symposium on Plasmid Biology (ISPB). This ISPB bursary was awarded to assist Early Career Researchers on their attendance to the 2024 symposium, being hosted in Hamamatsu, Japan! Christina’s abstract is titled, “Method for efficient quantification of short-term plasmid loss kinetics”, and Caison’s abstract is titled, “Establishing the Accuracy of a Plasmid Assembly Pipeline for Short-Read Sequence Contigs through PFGE Gel Mobility Size Verification”.
November 20, 2023
Christina Egami was one of the six who was awarded a seed grant to perform her proposed study titled: “Identification of bioactive compounds interfering with plasmid maintenance” by the UCSC Chemical Screening Center. Christina is a 4th year PhD student working on mechanisms regulating multicopy plasmid segregation, which is a critical determinant of plasmid stability. Multicopy plasmids are critical for the dissemination of antibiotic resistance and virulence. Bioactive compounds that promote plasmid loss are thus excellent candidates for controlling the spread of antibiotic resistance and for the development of antivirulence therapies. Check out the seed fund announcement!
December 25, 2023
The Camps Lab wishes you a happy holiday!
October 18, 2023
Manel Camps gives a talk at the Research Division of El Bosque University in Bogotá, which hosts a major medical center in Bogotá, Colombia. His talk was titled, “Evolution of New Biochemical Activities: Experimental Models of Antibiotic and Antitumor Chemotherapy Resistance”.
Eschericia coli residing in the intestine can cause severe disease if it colonizes internal organs. In collaboriate with Dr. Rocha’s group in Puebla (Mexico), we identify one of these pathogenic strains in a sample of fresh spinach, map it to an emerging, highly virulent sublineage, and define its genomic markers. This work shows that pathogenic strains can be transmitted by agricultural products and provides the tools for both a more rigorous epidemiological surveillance of E. coli and for a better understanding of its routes of transmission.
September 27, 2023
Ph.D candidate, Amanda Carbajal, has been awarded the highly selective Yale Ciencia Academy (YCA) Fellowship. This competitive fellowship selects applicants nationwide, and is a program dedicated to providing fellows support in their transition to a post-PhD position. See the full list of 2023 YCA fellows and check out the UCSC graduate announcement article. Congratulations Amanda!!
