Rate My Professor Melanie Griffin

Melanie Griffin, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Biology and Interim Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Operations in the College of Science and Mathematics at Kennesaw State University. She holds the position of Multiple Principal Investigator and Program Director for the NIH-funded Peach State Bridges to the Doctorate program, which provides research training to underrepresented students pursuing doctoral degrees in biomedical sciences. Griffin's research in the Griffin Lab employs molecular biology techniques, including PCR and transcriptomics, to examine bacterial pathogenesis. Her work focuses on the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, investigating the leucine-responsive regulatory protein (Lrp) as an epigenetic regulator of metabolic pathways and virulence factors such as adherence fimbriae. Additionally, she studies pathogen-specific bacteriophages as non-antibiotic therapies targeting ESKAPE pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species, by identifying environmental phage sources for potential clinical applications. She mentors undergraduate and MSIB graduate students on projects like novel bacteriophages against Staphylococcus species and Lrp regulation in Pseudomonas.

Griffin teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in microbiology, including Fundamental Microbiology, Medical Microbiology, General Microbiology, Introduction to Biotechnology, Advanced Topics in Microbiology: Deadly Microbes, and Molecular Mechanisms of Pathogenesis. Her earlier contributions to microbiology include research on bacterial heme oxygenases and iron transport, with key publications such as 'The cytoplasmic heme-binding protein (PhuS) from the heme uptake system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an intracellular heme-trafficking protein to the regioselective heme oxygenase' (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2006), 'Bacterial Heme Oxygenases' (book chapter, 2004), 'Iron Transport Systems in Neisseria meningitidis' (Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 2004), and 'Homologues of Neisserial heme oxygenase in Gram-negative bacteria: degradation of heme by the product of the pigA gene of Pseudomonas aeruginosa' (Journal of Bacteriology, 2001). She has been honored among externally funded researchers in the College of Science and Mathematics and contributes to efforts addressing antibiotic resistance through phage therapy research.