Our team investigates the role of genetic variance in virulence related phenotypes of Staphylococcus aureus and clinical manifestations of patients during bloodstream infections. The projects aims to identify genetic determinants associated with increased risks of complications, incl. within-gene variance. In collaboration with scientists from Medical Universities of Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice, we have created a unique collection of data on bacterial isolates along with associated patient metadata. Whole genome sequences of the collection are a valuable source of data on the role of the pathogen’s variability and are used in association studies and cooperative analyses.
Project financing:
- „Identyfikacja kluczowych determinantów genetycznych Staphylococcus aureus związanych z rozwojem zakażeń krwi”, finansowany w ramach konkursu SONATA14, Narodowego Centrum Nauki, numer 2018/31/D/NZ6/02648. Opis projektu; https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/index.php?projekt_id=429726
- „Analiza porównawcza genomów Staphylococcus aureus odpowiedzialnych za infekcyjne zapalenie wsierdzia w Polsce”, finansowany w ramach programu Bekker Narodowej Agencji Wymiany Akademickiej, numer PPN/BEK/2020/1/00316.
Publications since 2017:
Olatunji S, Yu X, Bailey J, Huang CY, Zapotoczna M, Bowen K, Remškar M, Müller R, Scanlan EM, Geoghegan JA, Olieric V, Caffrey M. Structures of lipoprotein signal peptidase II from Staphylococcus aureus complexed with antibiotics globomycin and myxovirescin. Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 9;11(1):140. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13724-y. PMID: 31919415; PMCID: PMC6952399.
López-Goñi I, Giner-Lamia J, Álvarez-Ordoñez A, Benitez-Páez A, Claessen D, Cortesao M, de Toro M, García-Ruano D, Granato ET, Kovács ÁT, Romalde JL, Sana TG, Sánchez-Angulo M, Sangari FJ, Smits WK, Sturm T, Thomassin JL, Valdehuesa KNG, Zapotoczna M. #EUROmicroMOOC: using Twitter to share trends in Microbiology worldwide. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2019 Jun 1;366(11):fnz141. doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnz141. PMID: 31253991.
Zapotoczna M, Riboldi GP, Moustafa AM, Dickson E, Narechania A, Morrissey JA, Planet PJ, Holden MTG, Waldron KJ, Geoghegan JA. Mobile-Genetic-Element-Encoded Hypertolerance to Copper Protects Staphylococcus aureus from Killing by Host Phagocytes. mBio. 2018 Oct 16;9(5):e00550-18. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00550-18. PMID: 30327441; PMCID: PMC6191537.
Purves J, Thomas J, Riboldi GP, Zapotoczna M, Tarrant E, Andrew PW, Londoño A, Planet PJ, Geoghegan JA, Waldron KJ, Morrissey JA. A horizontally gene transferred copper resistance locus confers hyper-resistance to antibacterial copper toxicity and enables survival of community acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA300 in macrophages. Environ Microbiol. 2018 Apr;20(4):1576-1589. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.14088. Epub 2018 Mar 26. PMID: 29521441; PMCID: PMC5947656.
Zapotoczna M, Forde É, Hogan S, Humphreys H, O’Gara JP, Fitzgerald-Hughes D, Devocelle M, O’Neill E. Eradication of Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Infections Using Synthetic Antimicrobial Peptides. J Infect Dis. 2017 Mar 15;215(6):975-983. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jix062. PMID: 28453851.
Zapotoczna M, Boksmati N, Donohue S, Bahtiar B, Boland A, Somali HA, Cox A, Humphreys H, O’Gara JP, Brennan M, O’Neill E. Novel anti-staphylococcal and anti-biofilm properties of two anti-malarial compounds: MMV665953 {1-(3-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)-3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)urea} and MMV665807 {5-chloro-2-hydroxy-N-[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]benzamide}. J Med Microbiol. 2017 Mar;66(3):377-387. doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.000446. Epub 2017 Mar 23. PMID: 28327271.
Zapotoczna M, Murray EJ, Hogan S, O’Gara JP, Chhabra SR, Chan WC, O’Neill E, Williams P. 5-Hydroxyethyl-3-tetradecanoyltetramic acid represents a novel treatment for intravascular catheter infections due to Staphylococcus aureus. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2017 Mar 1;72(3):744-753. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkw482. PMID: 27999062; PMCID: PMC5400099.
Zapotoczna M, O’Neill E, O’Gara JP. Untangling the Diverse and Redundant Mechanisms of Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation. PLoS Pathog. 2017 Jul 21;12(7):e1005671. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005671. PMID: 27442433; PMCID: PMC4956047.
Hogan S, Zapotoczna M, Stevens NT, Humphreys H, O’Gara JP, O’Neill E. Potential use of targeted enzymatic agents in the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm-related infections. J Hosp Infect. 2017 Jun;96(2):177-182. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2017.02.008. Epub 2017 Feb 16. PMID: 28351512.