Dr Sophia Gessner

Sophia's current research interests lie in understanding aspects of mycobacterial biology that contribute to the transmission and acquisition of drug resistance that can improve Tuberculosis control measures. The first aspect she is interested in is Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) transmission and determining if infectious M.tb bacilli have distinguishing morphological and/or physiological features. Additionally, her research efforts are heavily invested in understanding the dynamics of induced mutagenesis which has been extensively linked to drug resistance acquisition. She is part of the Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit (MMRU).