Rate My Professor Charlene Kahler

Professor Charlene Kahler is a Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Western Australia, serving as Head of School and Deputy Director of the Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases Research and Training. She completed her Bachelor of Science with honours in Microbiology and PhD in Microbiology at the University of Queensland. She then undertook postdoctoral training at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA from 1993 to 1998, studying the pathogenesis of Neisseria meningitidis, followed by research at Monash University from 1998 to 2004 on regulatory pathways in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. In 2005, she moved to the University of Western Australia to establish her independent laboratory focused on these bacterial pathogens, later diversifying into genomic epidemiology and development of anti-virulence therapeutics. As Head of Discipline for Microbiology and Immunology, she has supervised 13 PhD students to completion, providing them with comprehensive training including transferable skills for diverse careers.

Her research centers on bacterial pathogenesis, with a focus on Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, including genomic epidemiology during outbreaks of invasive meningococcal disease in Western Australia, evolutionary responses to vaccination, regulatory networks controlling endotoxin production, and protein homeostasis pathways such as oxidoreductases and peptidyl-prolyl isomerases. She investigates novel medical countermeasures against antimicrobial-resistant N. gonorrhoeae, targeting EptA and PPIases with small molecule inhibitors. Key publications include 'Microevolution associated with clonal expansion of a hypervirulent, penicillin-resistant lineage of Neisseria meningitidis in Western Australia' (Mikucki et al., Microbial Genomics, 2025), 'AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study' (Scientific Reports, 2024), 'Development and validation of a human 2D in vitro model of oral Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection' (Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2025), and earlier contributions such as 'Two glycosyltransferases, rfaK and lgtF, form the ice (inner core extension) lipooligosaccharide biosynthesis operon of Neisseria meningitidis' (2000). She serves as an executive board member of GenomicsWA and has contributed to public health responses to meningococcal disease in Western Australia.