Tatiana Soares da Costa

Tatiana Soares da Costa

Waite Research Institute

Division of Research and Innovation

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - 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 at The University of Adelaide's Waite campus.

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 

  • 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

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2022 Soares da Costa, T., Wyllie, J., Ghardi, C., Hulett, M., Abbott, B., Sutton, M., & Perugini, M. (2022). The First Inhibitor of <i>Meso</i>-Diaminopimelate Biosynthesis with Antibacterial Activity Against Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria.
    DOI
    2021 Christoff, R. M., Soares da Costa, T. P., Bayat, S., Holien, J. K., Perugini, M. A., & Abbott, B. M. (2021). Synthesis and structure-activity relationship studies of 2,4-thiazolidinediones and analogous heterocycles as inhibitors of dihydrodipicolinate synthase. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 52, 116518-1-116518-9.
    DOI
    2021 Wines, B. D., Trist, H. M., Esparon, S., Impey, R. E., Mackay, G. A., Andrews, R. K., . . . Hogarth, P. M. (2021). Fc Binding by FcγRIIa Is Essential for Cellular Activation by the Anti-FcγRIIa mAbs 8.26 and 8.2. Frontiers in Immunology, 12, 666813-1-666813-13.
    DOI
    2021 Nonis, S. G., Haywood, J., Schmidberger, J. W., Mackie, E. R. R., Soares da Costa, T. P., Bond, C. S., & Mylne, J. S. (2021). Structural and biochemical analyses of concanavalin A circular permutation by jack bean asparaginyl endopeptidase. Plant Cell, 33(8), 2794-2811.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
    2021 Soares da Costa, T. P., Hall, C. J., Panjikar, S., Wyllie, J. A., Christoff, R. M., Bayat, S., . . . Perugini, M. A. (2021). Towards novel herbicide modes of action by inhibiting lysine biosynthesis in plants. eLife, 10, 1-17.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2
    2021 Hall, C. J., Lee, M., Boarder, M. P., Mangion, A. M., Gendall, A. R., Panjikar, S., . . . Soares da Costa, T. P. (2021). Differential lysine-mediated allosteric regulation of plant dihydrodipicolinate synthase isoforms. FEBS Journal, 288(16), 4973-4986.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1 Europe PMC1
    2020 Li, Z., MacKie, E. R. R., Ramkissoon, P., Mather, J. C., Wiratpruk, N., Soares Da Costa, T. P., & Barnard, P. J. (2020). Synthesis, conformational analysis and antibacterial activity of Au(I)-Ag(I) and Au(I)-Hg(II) heterobimetallic N-heterocyclic carbene complexes. Dalton Transactions, 49(36), 12820-12834.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2
    2020 Impey, R. E., Hawkins, D. A., Sutton, J. M., & Soares da Costa, T. P. (2020). Overcoming intrinsic and acquired resistance mechanisms associated with the cell wall of gram-negative bacteria. Antibiotics, 9(9), 1-19.
    DOI Scopus10 WoS11 Europe PMC6
    2020 Suraweera, C. D., Anasir, M. I., Chugh, S., Javorsky, A., Impey, R. E., Hasan Zadeh, M., . . . Kvansakul, M. (2020). Structural insight into tanapoxvirus-mediated inhibition of apoptosis. FEBS Journal, 287(17), 3733-3750.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS6 Europe PMC4
    2020 Impey, R. E., Lee, M., Hawkins, D. A., Sutton, J. M., Panjikar, S., Perugini, M. A., & Soares da Costa, T. P. (2020). Mis-annotations of a promising antibiotic target in high-priority gram-negative pathogens. FEBS Letters, 594(9), 1453-1463.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS3
    2020 Young, N. D., Harris, T. J., Evangelista, M., Tran, S., Wouters, M. A., Soares da Costa, T. P., . . . Fairlie, W. D. (2020). Diversity in the intrinsic apoptosis pathway of nematodes. Communications Biology, 3(1), 478-1-478-12.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS2
    2020 Bleackley, M. R., Vasa, S., Harvey, P. J., Shafee, T. M. A., Kerenga, B. K., Soares da Costa, T. P., . . . Anderson, M. A. (2020). Histidine-rich defensins from the solanaceae and brasicaceae are antifungal and metal binding proteins. Journal of Fungi, 6(3), 1-14.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
    2020 Hall, C. J., Mackie, E. R. R., Gendall, A. R., Perugini, M. A., & Soares da Costa, T. P. (2020). Review: amino acid biosynthesis as a target for herbicide development. Pest Management Science, 76(12), 3896-3904.
    DOI Scopus9 WoS8 Europe PMC3
    2020 Giel, M. C., Smedley, C. J., Mackie, E. R. R., Guo, T., Dong, J., Soares da Costa, T. P., & Moses, J. E. (2020). Metal-Free Synthesis of Functional 1-Substituted-1,2,3-Triazoles from Ethenesulfonyl Fluoride and Organic Azides. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 59(3), 1181-1186.
    DOI Scopus27 WoS25 Europe PMC2
    2020 Impey, R. E., Panjikar, S., Hall, C. J., Bock, L. J., Sutton, J. M., Perugini, M. A., & Soares da Costa, T. P. (2020). Identification of two dihydrodipicolinate synthase isoforms from Pseudomonas aeruginosa that differ in allosteric regulation. The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) Journal, 287(2), 386-400.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS6 Europe PMC3
    2020 Suraweera, C. D., Anasir, M. I., Chugh, S., Javorsky, A., Impey, R. E., Zadeh, M. H., . . . Kvansakul, M. (2020). Structural insight into tanapoxvirus mediated inhibition of apoptosis.
    DOI
    2019 Gilson, P. R., Kumarasingha, R., Thompson, J., Zhang, X., Penington, J. S., Kalhor, R., . . . Abbott, B. M. (2019). A 4-cyano-3-methylisoquinoline inhibitor of Plasmodium falciparum growth targets the sodium efflux pump PfATP4. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1-15.
    DOI Scopus6 WoS5 Europe PMC3
    2019 Lee, E. F., Smith, N. A., Soares da Costa, T. P., Meftahi, N., Yao, S., Harris, T. J., . . . Fairlie, W. D. (2019). Structural insights into BCL2 pro-survival protein interactions with the key autophagy regulator BECN1 following phosphorylation by STK4/MST1. Autophagy, 15(5), 785-795.
    DOI Scopus19 WoS17 Europe PMC14
    2019 Christoff, R. M., Gardhi, C. K., Soares Da Costa, T. P., Perugini, M. A., & Abbott, B. M. (2019). Pursuing DHDPS: An enzyme of unrealised potential as a novel antibacterial target. MedChemComm, 10(9), 1581-1588.
    DOI Scopus5 WoS5
    2018 Gupta, R., Hogan, C. J., Perugini, M. A., & Soares da Costa, T. P. (2018). Characterization of recombinant dihydrodipicolinate synthase from the bread wheat Triticum aestivum. Planta, 248(2), 381-391.
    DOI Scopus3 WoS3
    2018 Soares da Costa, T. P., Abbott, B. M., Gendall, A. R., Panjikar, S., & Perugini, M. A. (2018). Molecular evolution of an oligomeric biocatalyst functioning in lysine biosynthesis. Biophysical Reviews, 10(2), 153-162.
    DOI Scopus12 Europe PMC2
    2018 North, R. A., Wahlgren, W. Y., Remus, D. M., Scalise, M., Kessans, S. A., Dunevall, E., . . . Dobson, R. C. J. (2018). The Sodium Sialic Acid Symporter From Staphylococcus aureus Has Altered Substrate Specificity. Frontiers in Chemistry, 6, 233-1-233-11.
    DOI Europe PMC8
    2018 Smith, K. M., Tsimbalyuk, S., Edwards, M. R., Cross, E. M., Batra, J., Soares da Costa, T. P., . . . Forwood, J. K. (2018). Structural basis for importin alpha 3 specificity of W proteins in Hendra and Nipah viruses. Nature Communications, 9(1), 1-13.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS28 Europe PMC21
    2018 Stifter, S. A., Matthews, A. Y., Mangan, N. E., Fung, K. Y., Drew, A., Tate, M. D., . . . Hertzog, P. J. (2018). Defining the distinct, intrinsic properties of the novel type i interferon, IFNϵ. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 293(9), 3168-3179.
    DOI Scopus14 WoS14 Europe PMC8
    2018 Gupta, R., Soares da Costa, T. P., Faou, P., Dogovski, C., & Perugini, M. A. (2018). Comparison of untagged and his-tagged dihydrodipicolinate synthase from the enteric pathogen Vibrio cholerae. Protein Expression and Purification, 145, 85-93.
    DOI Scopus10 WoS10 Europe PMC4
    2017 Soares da Costa, T. P., Patel, M., Desbois, S., Gupta, R., Faou, P., & Perugini, M. A. (2017). Identification of a dimeric KDG aldolase from Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Proteins: Structure, Function and Bioinformatics, 85(11), 2058-2065.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS3 Europe PMC2
    2017 Soares Da Costa, T. P., Nanson, J. D., & Forwood, J. K. (2017). Structural characterisation of the fatty acid biosynthesis enzyme FabF from the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1-9.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS4
    2017 Ellisdon, A. M., Nold-Petry, C. A., D’Andrea, L., Cho, S. X., Lao, J. C., Rudloff, I., . . . Nold, M. F. (2017). Homodimerization attenuates the anti-inflammatory activity of interleukin-37. Science Immunology, 2(8), 1-12.
    DOI Scopus31 WoS32 Europe PMC19
    2016 Miles, N. G., & Soares da Costa, T. P. (2016). Acceptance of clickers in a large multimodal biochemistry class as determined by student evaluations of teaching: Are they just an annoying distraction for distance students?. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 44(1), 99-108.
    DOI Scopus5 WoS4 Europe PMC2
    2016 Christensen, J. B., Soares Da Costa, T. P., Faou, P., Pearce, F. G., Panjikar, S., & Perugini, M. A. (2016). Structure and Function of Cyanobacterial DHDPS and DHDPR. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 12 pages.
    DOI Scopus18 WoS16 Europe PMC10
    2016 Peverelli, M. G., Soares da Costa, T., Kirby, N., & Perugini, M. A. (2016). Dimerization of bacterial diaminopimelate decarboxylase is essential for catalysis. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 291(18), 9785-9795.
    DOI Scopus26 WoS25 Europe PMC12
    2016 da Costa, T. P. S. (2016). Conference survival guide-the dos and don'ts. CELL DEATH DISCOVERY, 2(1), 3 pages.
    DOI
    2016 Soares da Costa, T. P., Desbois, S., Dogovski, C., Gorman, M. A., Ketaren, N. E., Paxman, J. J., . . . Perugini, M. A. (2016). Structural Determinants Defining the Allosteric Inhibition of an Essential Antibiotic Target. Structure, 24(8), 1282-1291.
    DOI Scopus23 WoS21 Europe PMC12
    2016 Soares da Costa, T. P. (2016). Supervisor types: which one is your match?. Cell Death Discovery, 2(1), 2 pages.
    DOI Scopus2
    2015 Tieu, W., Polyak, S., Paparella, A., Yap, M., Soares Da Costa, T., Ng, B., . . . Abell, A. (2015). Improved synthesis of biotinol-5'-AMP: implications for antibacterial discovery. ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 6(2), 216-220.
    DOI Scopus15 WoS15 Europe PMC6
    2014 Tieu, W., Jarrad, A. M., Paparella, A. S., Keeling, K. A., Soares da Costa, T. P., Wallace, J. C., . . . Abell, A. D. (2014). Heterocyclic acyl-phosphate bioisostere-based inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus biotin protein ligase. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 24(19), 4689-4693.
    DOI Scopus16 WoS15 Europe PMC6
    2014 Paparella, A., Soares Da Costa, T., Yap, M., Tieu, W., Wilce, M., Booker, G., . . . Polyak, S. (2014). Structure guided design of biotin protein ligase inhibitors for antibiotic discovery. Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, 14(1), 4-20.
    DOI Scopus25 WoS25 Europe PMC12
    2014 Soares da Costa, T., Yap, M., Perugini, M., Wallace, J., Abell, A., Wilce, M., . . . Booker, G. (2014). Dual roles of F123 in protein homodimerization and inhibitor binding to biotin protein ligase from Staphylococcus aureus. Molecular Microbiology, 91(1), 110-120.
    DOI Scopus17 WoS15 Europe PMC9
    2013 Tieu, W., Soares da Costa, T., Yap, M., Keeling, K., Wilce, M., Wallace, J., . . . Abell, A. (2013). Optimising in situ click chemistry: the screening and identification of biotin protein ligase inhibitors. Chemical Science, 4(9), 3533-3537.
    DOI Scopus31 WoS30
    2012 Soares da Costa, T., Tieu, W., Yap, M., Zvarec, O., Bell, J., Turnidge, J., . . . Polyak, S. (2012). Biotin analogues with antibacterial activity are potent inhibitors of biotin protein ligase. ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 3(6), 509-514.
    DOI Scopus34 WoS33 Europe PMC16
    2012 Soares da Costa, T., Tieu, W., Yap, M., Pendini, N., Polyak, S., Pedersen, D., . . . Abell, A. (2012). Selective inhibition of biotin protein ligase from Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 287(21), 17823-17832.
    DOI Scopus44 WoS36 Europe PMC24
    2012 Mayende, L., Swift, R., Bailey, L., Soares da Costa, T., Wallace, J., Booker, G., & Polyak, S. (2012). A novel molecular mechanism to explain biotin-unresponsive holocarboxylase synthetase deficiency. Journal of Molecular Medicine-JMM, 90(1), 81-88.
    DOI Scopus25 WoS23 Europe PMC14
    2010 Soares da Costa, T. P., Muscroft-Taylor, A. C., Dobson, R. C. J., Devenish, S. R. A., Jameson, G. B., & Gerrard, J. A. (2010). How essential is the 'essential' active-site lysine in dihydrodipicolinate synthase?. Biochimie, 92(7), 837-845.
    DOI Scopus29 WoS28 Europe PMC13
    2010 Muscroft-Taylor, A. C., Soares da Costa, T. P., & Gerrard, J. A. (2010). New insights into the mechanism of dihydrodipicolinate synthase using isothermal titration calorimetry. Biochimie, 92(3), 254-262.
    DOI Scopus22 WoS19 Europe PMC9

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2020 Gaskin, S. M., Soares Da Costa, T. P., & Hulett, M. D. (2020). Heparanase: Cloning, Function and Regulation. In Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology (Vol. 1221, pp. 189-229). Springer International Publishing.
    DOI Scopus5 WoS5 Europe PMC2
    2015 Soares Da Costa, T. P., Christensen, J. B., Desbois, S., Gordon, S. E., Gupta, R., Hogan, C. J., . . . Perugini, M. A. (2015). Quaternary Structure Analyses of an Essential Oligomeric Enzyme. In J. L. Cole (Ed.), Methods in Enzymology (Vol. 562, pp. 205-223). ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC.
    DOI Scopus16 WoS14 Europe PMC8

Year

Funding

Role

Amount

2022–2025

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

$446,368
2022–2024 South Australian Potato Industry Trust Fund: New herbicides for effective weed control in potato cropping systems sole CI $85,477
2022–2024 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
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
    2022 Principal Supervisor Towards the development of novel herbicide modes of action. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Emily Rose Ronayne Mackie
    2022 Principal Supervisor Identifying Novel Therapeutics to Tackle Antibiotic Resistance Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Jessica Anne Wyllie
    2022 Principal Supervisor Beyond glyphosate: Targeting unexplored aromatic amino acid biosynthesis enzymes in the search for new herbicides 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 Full Time Mr Daniel Adam Hawkins

  • 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
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