Tatiana Soares da Costa

Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa

Group Leader and Future Making Fellow

Waite Research Institute

Division of Research and Innovation

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD, but is currently at capacity - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Resistance to current antibiotics and herbicides represents a major threat to global health and food security. Despite a continuous rise in resistance worldwide, there has been a lack of antibiotics or herbicides with a new mode of action introduced to the market for the past 30 years.

The overall focus of the Soares da Costa laboratory is to define the structure, function and regulation of essential proteins in bacteria and plants to guide the development of new classes of antibiotics and herbicides. Specifically, we aim to target multiple proteins simultaneously in essential biosynthetic pathways. Combining such multivalent inhibitors as an antibiotic or herbicide ‘cocktail’ provides a novel strategy for reducing the downstream development of resistance and has the potential to improve efficacy through synergism.

Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa is a Future Making Fellow and the Head of the Herbicide and Antibiotic Innovation Lab at The University of Adelaide's Waite campus. Tatiana is passionate about science communication and promoting scientific research to the media, policymakers and the general community, culminating in being named a finalist in the 2023 SA Women of the Year Awards, one of the Superstars of STEM for 2023-2024 by Science & Technology Australia and the 2022 SA Young Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year. Tatiana currently serves as a Director at Science & Technology Australia, Editor of the Australian Biochemist and the Chair of Communications of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Tatiana was recently interviewed by ABC Rural for SA Country Hour - have a listen at the interview here.

For more information on Tatiana's research or to get in contact with her, have a look at her profiles on LinkedIn or Research Gate. You can follow Tatiana on Twitter @Tatiana_Biochem.

We are recruiting Honours, Masters and PhD students to work on various projects spanning biochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology and plant biology. Please contact Tatiana directly with an expression of interest (tatiana.soaresdacosta@adelaide.edu.au). 

 

Soares da Costa Lab photo.
Members of the Soares da Costa Lab (from left to right): Sreshtha Malik (PhD student), Jessica Wyllie (PhD student), Daniel Hawkins (PhD student), Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa (Lab Head), Emily Mackie (PhD student) and Mirrin Mckay (Honours student). Missing: Dr Andrew Barrow (postdoctoral researcher) and Ryan McClean (PhD student).

 

  • Appointments

    Date Position Institution name
    2022 - ongoing Group Leader and Future Making Fellow University of Adelaide
    2019 - 2022 Group Leader and ARC DECRA Fellow La Trobe University
    2015 - 2019 NHMRC Early Career Peter Doherty Fellow La Trobe University
    2013 - 2015 Teaching Only Lecturer Charles Sturt University
  • Language Competencies

    Language Competency
    Portuguese Can read, write, speak and understand spoken
  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    2010 - 2013 The University of Adelaide Australia PhD
    2006 - 2008 University of Canterbury New Zealand Master of Science (First Class Honours)
    2003 - 2005 University of Canterbury New Zealand Bachelor of Science

Year

Funding

Role

Amount

20222025

ARC Discovery Project (DP220101901): Re-purposing shelved ‘antibiotics’ in the search for new herbicides Lead CI

$446,368

20222025 Hermon Slade Foundation: Towards novel diagnostic tools to monitor and combat herbicide resistance Lead CI $77,842
20222024 South Australian Potato Industry Trust FundNew herbicides for effective weed control in potato cropping systems Sole CI $85,477
20222024 Australian Academy of Science Thomas Davies Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology: Using supercomputers in the search for herbicides that inhibit amino acid production in plants Sole CI $19,960
2022–2023 Yitpi Foundation GrantHerbicides with new active ingredients for effective wheat protection Sole CI $14,500
2019–2022

ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE190100806): Towards herbicide cocktails with a new mode of action to avert resistance

Sole CI $419,854

2019–2022

Australian Academy of Science JG Russell Award (to support the ARC DECRA)

Sole CI

$6,000

2020–2022 Defence Science Institute Research Higher Degree Stipend (to fund an HDR student)Combating the resistance crisis: Towards new antibiotic and herbicide targets Sole CI $15,000

2020–2022

Defence Science Institute Research Higher Degree Scholarship (to fund an HDR student): Fighting superbugs with novel drugs to tackle resistance

Sole CI

$15,000

2019–2022 Grains Research and Development Corporation Research Higher Degree Scholarship (to fund an HDR student): Development of herbicide cocktails with a novel mode of action for circumventing resistance mechanisms Sole CI $107,091

2015–2019

NHMRC Early Career Fellowship: Broad spectrum inhibition of an enzyme antibiotic target

Sole CI

$309,436

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 Co-Supervisor Preclinical evaluation of new derivatives of the anticoccidial drug robenidine as novel antibacterial agents Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Sayara Bista
    2023 Principal Supervisor Unlocking the Value of Lysine for Sustainable Agriculture Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Mirrin McKay
    2023 Principal Supervisor Re-purposing shelved antibiotics in search for new herbicides Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Abhay Chopra
    2022 Principal Supervisor Identifying Novel Therapeutics to Tackle Antibiotic Resistance Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Jessica Anne Wyllie
    2022 Principal Supervisor Developing novel strategies to monitor and combat herbicide resistance Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Sreshtha Malik
    2022 Principal Supervisor Validating Novel Antibiotic and Herbicide Targets to Circumvent Resistance Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Daniel Adam Hawkins
    2022 Principal Supervisor A novel repurposing approach for herbicide discovery to combat resistant weeds Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Ryan James Francis McClean
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2022 - 2023 Principal Supervisor Strategies to Circumvent Herbicide Resistance Through the Inhibition of Lysine Biosynthesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Emily Rose Ronayne Mackie
  • Board Memberships

    Date Role Board name Institution name Country
    2020 - ongoing Board Member Board of Directors Science & Technology Australia Australia
    2019 - ongoing Member Executive Committee Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Australia
  • Committee Memberships

    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2021 - ongoing Member Chair of Communications International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Australia
  • Editorial Boards

    Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
    2016 - ongoing Editor Editor Australian Biochemist Magazine Australia
  • Position: Group Leader and Future Making Fellow
  • Phone: 83130258
  • Email: tatiana.soaresdacosta@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: Waite
  • Building: Plant Genomics Centre, floor Level Two
  • Room: 2.34
  • Org Unit: Waite Research Institute

Connect With Me
External Profiles