Jillian Armenia

Jillian Armenia is a graduate student in the department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt. Jill earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Her research at Vanderbilt focuses on DNA gyrase as a drug target in pathogenic bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Campylobacter jejuni, Treponema pallidum, and Helicobacter pylori, all of which encode gyrase as their sole type II topoisomerase. Developing a better understanding of how these enzymes function as the only type II topoisomerase in cells as well as characterizing their interactions with current and novel type II topoisomerase-targeting drugs will provide insight into how they can be targeted by antibacterials to overcome antimicrobial resistance.

Mentor: Neil Osheroff, Ph.D.