Vinai Chittezham Thomas

This paper shows that guanosine, a β-lactam adjuvant, enhances the effectiveness of antifolate antibiotics and pyrimidine inhibitors by depleting thymidine in MRSA.

This study shows that the Spx redox switch in S. aureus is critical for managing cysteine levels during disulfide stress, preventing Fe(II) depletion and growth inhibition.

This study identifies a S180F substitution in D-alanine aminotransferase (Dat) in Staphylococcus aureus that confers resistance to β-chloro-D-alanine by altering PLP co-factor binding and promoting antibiotic inactivation.

This study identifies a thermodynamic bottleneck in the TCA cycle of S. aureus that favors acetate overflow metabolism for bioenergetic efficiency.

This study shows that Toxoplasma gondii exploits host ER-phagy to increase amino acid levels, which supports its persistence and reduces neurological effects in mice.

This study identifies Spx as a stress regulator that enhances β-lactam resistance and reduces susceptibility to last-line antibiotics in MRSA through a redox-independent mechanism.

This study shows that Staphylococcus aureus counters acetate-mediated inhibition of peptidoglycan cross-linking by maintaining high intracellular D-Ala levels through alanine racemase and limiting D-Ala flux via D-alanine aminotransferase.

This study integrates computational modeling and experimental validation to refine a genome-scale metabolic model of S. aureus, improving its accuracy in predicting gene essentiality and metabolic capabilities.