Maria Juanpere Borras

Maria Juanpere BorrasEmail: maria.juanpereborras@wur.nl

Affiliation:  Wageningen University, The Netherlands

In June 2019, I graduated in Microbiology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. During my Bachelor studies I had the opportunity to study microorganisms deeply. However, I developed a particular interest in molecular microbiology. My first contact in this field was with Dr. Jordi Morato’s research group, in UNESCO Chair on Sustainability at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where I analyzed environmental samples to identify and quantify the presence of specific microorganisms. 

To add practical experience to my studies, I decided to apply for an Erasmus+ internship in prof. Arnold J.M. Driessen's research group, from the molecular microbiology department at the University of Groningen. My project dealt with the engineering of yeast sugar transporters for energy uncoupled transport. I used CRISPR to generate a yeast mutant, and later I grew the mutant in a chemostat for directed evolution. I also worked with a computational model of an hexose sugar transporter during my time there, built using homology modeling to define the sugar binding site and discovered several amino acid substitutions which could potentially result in maltose binding.

In September 2021, I graduated from an MSc in Multidisciplinary research in experimental science from the Barcelona Institute of science and technology and the Pompeu Fabra University. I chose this program due to the importance given to the hands-on training. Furthermore, the multidisciplinary program allowed me to work with people from different fields and combine our knowledge into a single project. Also, during my studies, I've been widely aware of the constant appearance of new resistant strains. That’s why I started my major project in the Antimicrobial therapies group, led by dr. Eduard Torrents at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia. My project was about the molecular regulation of P. aeruginosa secretion system type 6 and its toxicity against S. aureus.

ESR2: Re-sensitising drug resistant Streptococcus suis to antimicrobial treatment; Use of Transposon insertion sequencing (TnSeq) to identify genes which are essential for Streptococcus suis during infection and which increase sensitivity to antibiotics. 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major challenge to human health and infections due to resistant bacteria are predicted to exceed cancer as the primary cause of human mortality by 2050, negatively impacting on world economy and social stability. Prudent use of antimicrobials can slow down the development of AMR, but it cannot solve the challenges caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria (MDR), some of which are resistant to all antimicrobials currently on the market.

Streptococcus suis is a globally emerging zoonotic pathogen that occurs naturally in the upper respiratory tract, the genital, and the alimentary tract of pigs. S. suis is an important cause of invasive disease in pigs leading to increased use of antibiotics as prophylactic and metaphylactic interventions. S. suis is an emerging human pathogen in in South East Asia where it causes outbreaks of meningitis in humans leading to high mortality. The project will use transposon (Tn) mutagenesis and Tn insertion-sequencing of mutant libraries in Streptococcus suis to (i) identify genes required for in vivo survival during an infection and (ii) to identify gene mutants that sensitize MDR bacteria to existing antibiotics, including antimicrobial-resistant strains. These genes may also be relevant therapeutic targets for other pathogenic bacteria and will be used for structure-based drug discovery in collaboration with other academic and industrial partners in the project. The PhD candidate will work with molecular biology tools to generate Tn libraries in S. suis, in vivo mimicking models to identify conditional mutants, genetic and biochemical methods to characterise specific mutants, in silico methods and structural biology tools.