Leticia Llarrull Receives Best Thesis Award
Leticia Llarrull, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has won the Best Thesis award from the Biophysical Society of Argentina.
A five-person committee awarded her the prize for the work that earned her a PhD in Biological Sciences from the National University of Rosario, where she also received her undergraduate degree. The award, based on the writing of the thesis, the relevance and the number of publications that resulted from the research work, includes the opportunity to give a talk at the society’s annual meeting, once she returns to Argentina.
The six years of research behind her thesis involved a structural and mechanistic characterization of the metallo--lactamase BcII. BcII belongs to a class of bacterial enzymes, called metallo--lactamases, which render the bacteria resistant to antibiotics, including last-generation -lactams. Information from her research could lead to synthesizing inhibitors to block this class of enzymes. The work conducted resulted in four publications in high-impact journals.
Llarrull works with both Shahriar Mobashery, the Navari Family Chair in Life Sciences, and Mayland Chang, professional specialist in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In the Mobashery laboratory, Llarrull is approaching the problem of bacterial resistance to -lactam antibiotics from a different perspective. She is investigating a membrane protein found in the pathogenic bacteria Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that is proposed to act as a sensor to detect the antibiotics outside the cell and send a signal for the bacterium to produce a -lactamase. Characterizing the signaling pathway, like the work on the metallo--lactamase, holds the potential for breaking the bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics. Leticia Llarrull is a PEW Latin American Fellow in Biomedical Sciences, and when her postdoctoral work ends, her fellowship includes an initiation grant to start a laboratory in Argentina.
Contact: Marissa Runkle, Marketing Communications Specialist, (574) 631-4465, mrunkle@nd.edu
Released: 10/23/2009
