Grad Lab Updates: March 2026
We are celebrating a recent publication from the Grad Lab led by Dr. Aditi Mukherjee: “Genetic background modulates zoliflodacin and gepotidacin cross-resistance and fitness in Neisseria gonorrhoeae.” Zoliflodacin and gepotidacin are two newly approved first-in-class drugs designed to treat multidrug resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Dr. Mukherjee and lab members Sofia Blomqvist, Dr. David Helekal, Dr. Samantha Palace, and Dr. Yonatan Grad investigated how transforming clinical N gonorrhoeae strains with a gene that confers resistance to zoliflodacin affected susceptibility to gepotidacin and overall fitness.
This work which was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and selected as an Editor’s Choice Article.
We’d like to highlight also another recent Grad Lab publication led by Dr. David Helekal: “Quantifying the real-world impact of antibiotic use and genetic determinants of resistance on gonococcal dynamics.” This paper introduces a hierarchical Bayesian phylodynamic framework to link pathogen genomics, antibiotic prescribing, and fitness effects of resistance determinants over 20 years of Neisseria gonorrhoeae surveillance. Dr. Aditi Mukherjee, Dr. Sam Palace, Dr. Yonatan Grad, and lab alumnus Dr. Tatum Mortimer contributed to this work.
