Alla Gagarinova

Assistant Professor, Molecular Genetics

PhD

Biology

Bailey Hall 220

Fredericton

Alla.Gagarinova@unb.ca
1 506 869 6588



Available positions

  • undergraduates (wet lab),
  • graduate students (wet and dry lab),
  • technician (wet lab),
  • postdoc (computational biology / bioinformatics, i.e., dry lab).

Prospective graduate students: Please make sure you qualify for admission to the UNB graduate biology program before reaching out. To express your interest, please email Dr. Gagarinova your unofficial transcripts, a statement of interest and a CV indicating your qualifications.

Academic interests

  • Systems biology
  • Host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions
  • Environmental adaptation and antibiotic resistance

Brief biography

I completed my Honours BSc degree with high distinction in biology and biochemistry at the University of Toronto in Mississauga. As an undergraduate, I investigated fungal biology and pathogenesis. I completed my MSc in the Department of Biology at the University of Western Ontario (now Western University, in London, Ontario), where I researched viral pathogenesis and evolution. As a Master’s student, I also began teaching in a classroom setting, contributing to collaborative projects, programming and performing data analyses. I obtained my PhD from the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, where I investigated gene-gene functional relationships; conditional rewiring of genetic interactions in response to environment and drugs; and Escherichia coli ribosome biogenesis and protein synthesis. I was involved in the development of systems biology approaches and computational tools. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Saskatchewan and a research specialist at the University of Regina, I investigated bacterial pathogenesis, antibiotic resistance, protein-protein and gene-gene interactions.

Starting in July 2023, research in my laboratory at UNB will use interdisciplinary approaches to investigate bacterial biology, genetic and protein-protein interactions, environmental adaptation, antimicrobial resistance, as well as host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions. The laboratory will be equipped with state-of-the-art robotic instrumentation allowing large-scale bacterial colony pinning, liquid handling, and high-throughput screening. Additional instrumentation, including mass spectrometers and next-generation sequencers, real-time cell metabolic analyzers, RT-PCR and other equipment will be made available by collaborators. This research will be supported by federal, provincial and institutional funds.

Courses taught

  • BIOL3013 Advanced Genetics

Selected research

Gagarinova A, Hosseinia A, Rahmatbakhsh M, Istace Z, Phanse S, Moutaoufik M T, Zilocchi M, Zhang Q, Aoki H, Kim S Y, Aly K, Babu M. (2022). Auxotrophic and prototrophic conditional genetic networks reveal the rewiring of transcription factors in Escherichia coli. Nature Communications. 13(1): 4085.

Grishin A, Voth K, Gagarinova A, Cygler M. (2022). Structural biology of the invasion arsenal of Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. The FEBS Journal. 289(6):1385-1427.

Rahmatbakhsh M, Gagarinova A, Babu M. (2021). Bioinformatic analysis of temporal and spatial changes during infection. Frontiers In Genetics, Sec. Systems Biology Archive. ttps://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.667936.

Gagarinova A, Hosseinnia A, Babu M. (2021). Quantitative genetic screens for mapping bacterial pathways and functional networks. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2381: 3-37.