Kevin Blake

Program: Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Current advisor: Gautam Dantas, PhD

Undergraduate university: Hartwick College, 2017

Enrollment year: 2018

Research summary
Microbial ecology and antibiotic resistance

Tetracycline destructases are a class of tetracycline-inactivating enzyme that have been identified in numerous environmental metagenomes, but with limited occurrence in pathogens or clinical isolates. Proactive study of these resistance genes before they become of clinical concern will allow for mitigation of the threat they pose.

Graduate publications
Blake KS, Choi J, Dantas G. 2021 Approaches for characterizing and tracking hospital-associated multidrug-resistant bacteria. Cell Mol Life Sci, 78(6):2585-06.