Negin Asgharihosseinpour studied molecular biology (MSc) at the University of Milan. She did her master’s thesis at the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM) in Milan. Then for continuing her studies as a PhD student she moved to Germany. Negin started working at HIPS in March 2022.

The project that Negin Asgharihosseinpour works on is two-component lantibiotics from a human skin commensal. The rise and spread of multi drug-resistant bacteria is becoming a serious threat for human health that demands the development of new antimicrobial drugs. The focus of the project presented here lies on a set of two-component lantibiotics that were discovered from a beneficial human commensal isolated from the skin microbiota of a healthy human. These lantibiotics show potent activity against Staphylococcus aureus (including clinical MRSA isolates), while not affecting other beneficial commensals, and it was previously demonstrated how these compounds prevent S. aureus colonization of the skin. Hence, these lantibiotics might be interesting new drug leads for the selective treatment of S. aureus.