Research and Teaching Interests
Dr. Cardona’s long-term research goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms that control microbial growth in diverse environments, such as infection sites and biotechnological processes. To that end, the Cardona lab builds genomic and synthetic biology tools with a focus on essential genes. We apply these tools to the discovery of antimicrobials, the synthesis and degradation of bioplastics, and pathogen detection. We develop some of these applications in Burkholderia, a group of Gram-negative bacteria that have extraordinary biotechnological potential but also cause opportunistic infections.
Dr. Cardona’s research and teaching interests are interdisciplinary. She is an Ian C. P. Smith Integrated Science Faculty Scholar and has taught SCI200, which combines microbiology, chemistry and mathematics to address the problem of antimicrobial drug resistance.
Select publications
Rahman ASM Z, Timmerman L, Gallardo F, Cardona ST. 2021. Identification of essential protein domains from high-density transposon insertion sequencing. Scientific Reports. Accepted December 29, 2021. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-589027/v1
Maydaniuk D, Wu B, Truong D, Liyanage SH, Hogan AM, Yap ZL, Yan M, Cardona ST. 2021. New auranofin analogs with antibacterial properties against Burkholderia clinical isolates. Antibiotics. 10:1443. https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/10/12/1443
Hogan AM, Jeffers KR, Palacios A, Cardona ST. 2021. Improved dynamic range of a rhamnose-inducible promoter for gene expression in Burkholderia. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 87(18)e006472. https://journals.asm.org/doi/abs/10.1128/AEM.00647-21
Haim MS, Zaheer R, Bharat A, Di Gregorio S, Di Conza J, Galanternik L, Lubovich S, Golding GR, Graham M, Van Domselaar Cardona ST, Mollerach M. 2021. Genome plasticity of Staphylococcus aureus as an adaptive strategy in lung colonization of cystic fibrosis patients. Microbial Genomics 7(3) mgen000510 https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000510
Hogan AM, Rahman ASM Z, Lightly TJ, Cardona ST. 2019. A broad-host range CRISPRi toolkit for silencing gene expression in Burkholderia. ACS Synthetic Biology 8: 2372–2384. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acssynbio.9b00232
Lightly T, Frejuk KL, Groleau MC, Ras C, Buroni S, Déziel E, Sorensen JL, Cardona ST. 2019. Phenylacetyl-CoA, not phenylacetic acid, attenuates the quorum sensing-regulated virulence of Burkholderia cenocepacia Appl Environ Microbiol. 85(24). https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/AEM.01594-19
Hogan AM, Scoffone VC, Makarov V, Gislason AS, Tesfu H, Stietz MS, Brassinga AKC, Domaratzki M, Li X, Azzalin A, Biggiogera M, Riabova O, Monakhova N, Chiarelli LR, Riccardi G, Buroni S, Cardona ST. 2018. Competitive fitness of essential gene knockdowns reveals a broad-spectrum antibacterial inhibitor of the cell division protein FtsZ. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 62(12). pii: e01231. https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/AAC.01231-18. Highlighted in UM today.
Courses taught
MBIO 4040 Systems Microbiology
SCI 2000 Overcoming Antibiotic Drug Resistance
MBIO 7040 Module: Navigating Graduate Studies