Rate My Professor Teresa Thurston

Professor Teresa Thurston is an Associate Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology within the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford. She holds an Official Fellowship as Tutor in Cell and Molecular Biology at Magdalen College, where she teaches cellular and molecular biology to medical and biomedical sciences students. Thurston earned a degree in Natural Sciences and a PhD in innate immune signalling from the University of Cambridge, supervised by Dr. Felix Randow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. She then pursued postdoctoral research with Professor David Holden at Imperial College London, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and an Imperial College Research Fellowship. In 2018, she established her independent laboratory with a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship, investigating Salmonella pathogenesis and innate immune signalling.

In 2024, Thurston joined the University of Oxford, leading a research group that integrates microbiology, cell biology, biochemistry, and X-ray crystallography to study bacterial virulence factors and host immunity. Her work elucidates mechanisms by which intracellular pathogens Salmonella and Burkholderia pseudomallei manipulate host innate immune responses through effectors, impacting bacterial intracellular fate and infection outcomes. Notable publications include 'Bacterial effectors mediate kinase reprogramming through mimicry of conserved eukaryotic motifs' (Panagi et al., EMBO Reports, 2025), 'Modulation of Salmonella virulence by a novel SPI-2 injectisome effector that interacts with the dystrophin-associated protein complex' (Yu et al., mBio, 2024), 'Bacterial esterases reverse lipopolysaccharide ubiquitylation to block host immunity' (Szczesna et al., Cell Host & Microbe, 2024), 'Salmonella Effector SteE Converts the Mammalian Serine/Threonine Kinase GSK3 into a Tyrosine Kinase to Direct Macrophage Polarization' (Panagi et al., Cell Host & Microbe, 2020), and 'Structure-function analyses of the bacterial zinc metalloprotease effector protein GtgA uncover key residues required for deactivating NF-κB' (Jennings et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2018). Her impactful research has been recognized with the EMBO Young Investigator Programme membership in 2024 and the 2025 Pettenkofer Prize for modulating the innate immune system by bacterial effectors. Thurston's discoveries advance fundamental knowledge of pathogenesis and hold potential for new therapeutics against bacterial diseases.