Kirstin Brown
About Me
Kirstin is a graduate student in the department of Microbiology & Immunology at UBC. She developed a keen interest in the intricate world of microbes as a second year undergraduate student while studying Microbiology at Langara College, and continued on to complete her Bachelor's degree at UBC. During her undergraduate education, she valued the experience she was fortunate to gain in laboratory courses and during her honour's thesis. She especially enjoyed MICB447 at UBC in which students complete a research project and publish a paper in UJEMI. As a graduate student, she had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for this course and thoroughly enjoyed mentoring young scientists as they carried out their research and wrote their manuscripts, inspiring her to become part of the UJEMI team.
Projects
Kirstin's work forcuses on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the caustive agent of Tuberculosis. More specifically, she works on the cholesterol catabolic pathway of the pathogen. While residing in the human lung, M. tuberculosis relies on cholesterol as a carbon source. A better understanding of the steps by which cholesterol is degraded, and how the enzymes are regulated have provided novel targets for the development of antimicrobial therapeutics.
Background
BSc. (honours), Microbiology & Immunology, UBC (2012)
PhD. Candidate, Microbiology & Immunology, UBC
Contact Info
Crowe, A. et al. 2017. Catabolism of the last two steroid rings in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other bacteria. MBio. 8(2):e00321-17.