Rate My Professor Galina Mukamolova

Professor Galina Mukamolova is a Professor in Microbial Physiology and serves as the Departmental Director of Research and Deputy Head of Department in the Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the A. N. Bakh Institute of Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences. Her academic career includes work in Russia on initial research, a move in 1998 to Aberystwyth to investigate resuscitation-promoting factors (Rpf), a position in 2005 at the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler where she gained expertise in handling Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and since 2007 at the University of Leicester, starting as a Wellcome Trust Value-in-People Fellow, advancing to lecturer, and now holding her professorial positions.

Mukamolova's research centers on bacterial dormancy and resuscitation, focusing on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, and Burkholderia pseudomallei, the agent of melioidosis. She discovered resuscitation-promoting factors (Rpf), which revealed occult populations of tubercle bacilli and has had lasting impact on tuberculosis research. Her investigations cover the clinical importance of Rpf-dependent mycobacteria, in vitro models for drugs targeting persister mycobacteria, molecular protein kinase signalling mechanisms, and peptidoglycan recycling. This work is funded by BBSRC, MRC, Royal Society, European Commission, and industry. Notable publications include 'A bacterial cytokine' (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1998), 'The rpf gene of Micrococcus luteus encodes an essential secreted growth factor' (Mol. Microbiol., 2002), 'A family of autocrine growth factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis' (Mol. Microbiol., 2002), 'Resuscitation-promoting factors reveal an occult population of tubercle bacilli in sputum' (Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 2010), 'Phenotypically adapted Mycobacterium tuberculosis populations from sputum are tolerant to first line drugs' (Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 2016), 'Two faces of CwlM, an essential PknB substrate, in Mycobacterium tuberculosis' (Cell Rep., 2018), 'Mycobacterial phosphatase PstP regulates global serine threonine phosphorylation and cell division' (Sci. Rep., 2019), and 'Coupling of Peptidoglycan Synthesis to Central Metabolism in Mycobacteria: Post-transcriptional Control of CwlM by Aconitase' (Cell Rep., 2020).