Summary
Abigail Clements is a Lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences and a Group Leader in the Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection (CMBI).
She joined Imperial College in 2009 as a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Gad Frankel. This followed a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Professor Trevor Lithgow at Monash University and a PhD at the University of Melbourne with Professor Richard Strugnell.
Dr Clements’ interests are in bacterial pathogenesis and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Her work therefore encompasses aspects of cellular microbiology, molecular microbiology, clinical microbiology, biochemistry, and many more disciplines. Her group currently works on a number of bacterial pathogens including Shigella sp and Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Shigella species are responsible for bacillary dysentery or shigellosis, a disease estimated to cause nearly 1 million deaths per year. Two Shigella species (flexneri and sonnei) are responsible for the majority of the disease burden with flexneri infection causing the majority of infections in low income countries and sonnei in high income countries. The lab is interested in comparing the molecular mechanisms used by both pathogens in order to understand the different epidemiology observed.
Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) are opportunistic pathogens that are particularly adept at acquiring antimicrobial resistance (AMR). High risk global multi-resistant genetic lineages are responsible for the increased prevalence of Kp infections and the lab are interested in understanding the features of these lineages that result in increased virulence.
Selected recent publications
Publications
Journals
Leung PB, Matanza XM, Roche B, et al., 2024, Shigella sonnei utilises colicins during inter-bacterial competition., Microbiology (reading), Vol:170
Matanza XM, Clements A, 2023, Pathogenicity and virulence of Shigella sonnei: A highly drug-resistant pathogen of increasing prevalence., Virulence, Vol:14
Wong JLC, Romano M, Kerry LE, et al., 2023, Author Correction: OmpK36-mediated Carbapenem resistance attenuates ST258 Klebsiella pneumoniae in vivo., Nat Commun, Vol:14
Wong J, David S, Sanchez Garrido J, et al., 2022, Recurrent emergence of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenem resistance mediated by an inhibitory ompK36 mRNA secondary structure, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of Usa, Vol:119, ISSN:0027-8424, Pages:1-12
Singh S, Wilksch JJ, Dunstan RA, et al., 2022, LPS O Antigen Plays a Key Role in Klebsiella pneumoniae Capsule Retention, Microbiology Spectrum, Vol:10, ISSN:2165-0497