2025 SPRC Poster Winners
By: TAMU Biology
Congratulations to Morgan Osborne and Ahmed Yusuf, Graduate Students winners of the Poster Presentations from the 2025 Student Postdoc Research Conference! Read more below about their spotlights and advice for future students.
Ahmed Yusuf
My Research Model
I research the clinically important multidrug-resistant pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) which poses an acute threat to immunocompromised hosts, especially in Cystic Fibrosis patients. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified P. aeruginosa as a Priority 1 Critical and Serious Threats for the discovery of new antibiotics in 2017 and 2019, respectively. A key pathogenic feature of PA is its ability to form multicellular biofilm structures that increase resistance to antibiotics. Crucial for the formation of biofilms are captivating nanomachine called type IV pili (TFP). TFP are external appendages that undergo cyclic levels of extension and retraction to facilitate different biological functions like surface sensing and motility.
About my research
My research focus is to study how the two external appendages (flagella and TFP) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa act together during sensing of the mechanical environment. I am using a combination of different biological techniques including molecular tools, genetics, and live-cell fluorescence imaging to investigate how P. aeruginosa uses its external appendages to feel substrates as a mimic for the first step of infection of different tissue types that reflect the broad range of different infection sites and underlying diseases of P. aeruginosa. Currently, I am filming the dynamics of TFP of individual cells to measure their change in activity to different physical and chemical environments. This will help me understand how TFP as a virulence factor are regulated by different host environments.
Answering this fundamental question will help us better understand how Pseudomonas aeruginosa integrates information about its environment during pathogenesis, especially about the specific infection site. Understanding this mechanism is the first step to developing a novel anti-virulence-based therapeutic because antibiotics confer a selective pressure on the pathogen which results in the rapid development of resistance.
Advice for future students
My advice for future students is just to be highly motivated and have perseverance. I remember when I joined the biology department program and was doing my first rotation in Dr. Nan’s Lab. One day, during our weekly talk, he asked me: “Ahmed, do you know what a PhD is all about?” I replied: “No.” Then he said: “PhD is trouble shooting.” That simple answer solidified my commitment to the program. Again, when I joined Dr. Koch’s Lab for my second rotation and was able to make three mutants (my first knockouts ever) within four weeks. Dr. Koch said, and I quote “Ahmed, always remember today that you were able to make these mutants on your first trial. Sometimes, creating a mutant may take you months”. His statement made me realize that pursuing a PhD program requires perseverance.
Morgan Osborne
My Research Model
My research model is Clostridioides difficile.
About my research
My research focuses on how a protease identifies and processes its substrates during C. difficile sporulation. The sporulation-specific protease, YabG, processes two mother cell-made and cortex-destined proteins that are required for germination: CspBA to CspB and CspA and preproSleC to proSleC. My work has focused on identifying other YabG substrates as well as characterizing the effects of mutations in YabG. As well as identifying the secretion signal for cortex localized proteins that are made in the mother cell are secreted to the forespore during spore development, i.e. the Csps and proSleC.
Advice for future students
The advice I would have for future students is to make sure you are excited about science and research. I didn’t think I would be working on such a small detail of sporulation, but here I am, and I love going to lab every day. There are days when things don’t go as planned, but it is all apart of discovering something new and exciting.
