Rate My Professor Will Jowsey

Dr. Will Jowsey serves as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Otago in 2022. His PhD thesis, entitled "Characterisation of the novel DUF2285-containing transcriptional regulator QseM from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii," investigated the function and regulation of the QseM transcriptional regulator in the symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacterium Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii. This work contributed to understanding bacterial gene regulation mechanisms in rhizobia, as documented in the University of Otago's OUR Archive.

Dr. Jowsey's current research focuses on the physiological consequences of antibiotic resistance mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the obligate human pathogen responsible for tuberculosis, the world's leading cause of death from an infectious disease. Employing phenotypic growth assays and mass spectrometry-based proteomics, he has shown that drug resistance mutations disrupt essential cellular processes, constraining the metabolic flexibility of M. tuberculosis. Notably, bedaquiline-resistant and rifampicin-resistant mutants display inhibited growth under host-relevant conditions, and central carbon metabolism is altered across multiple drug-resistant strains. Resistance to all clinically available antibiotics has been reported in M. tuberculosis, undermining antitubercular treatments, and Dr. Jowsey's findings illuminate how such resistance imposes metabolic constraints, limiting pathogen adaptation to host environments. He will present this research at a microbiology seminar hosted by the University of Otago on 8 September 2025. Dr. Jowsey is a co-author on peer-reviewed publications including "Verapamil and its metabolite norverapamil inhibit the Mycobacterium tuberculosis MmpS5L5 efflux pump to potentiate the activity of bedaquiline and other antitubercular drugs" (2025), "Uncovering interactions between mycobacterial respiratory cytochrome bd oxidase and nitric oxide reductase" (2022), "Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyridine Inhibitor of the Respiratory Cytochrome bd in Mycobacterium tuberculosis" (2018), and "Antituberculosis Activity of the Antimalaria Cytochrome bcc Inhibitor ATSB05" (2020). His contributions appear in journals such as PNAS and ACS Infectious Diseases.