Professor Diane McDougald

Prof McDougald did her Masters in the US with Vibrio vulnificus expert Distinguished Professor Jim Oliver. She then moved to Australia to do her PhD under Distinguished Professor Staffan Kjelleberg studying adaptive responses of marine bacteria.

 McDougald then worked as Project Leader for Biofilm Fundamentals in the Environmental Biotechnology CRC 2006-2008 and the Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation 2001 – 2014. Diane worked 1/2 time in Singapore from 2009 - 2013 as Program Leader for Marine Health and Biotechnology cluster of the Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre and then in the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering at Nanyang Technological University from 2013 - 2021.

 Prof McDougald is now the Leader for the Microbial Ecology and Evolution Theme in the Australian Institute for Microbiology & Infection (formally the iThree Institute) at UTS.

 Prof. McDougald has made significant contributions to the fields of Vibrio biology, bacterial adaptation to stress and mechanisms of molecular control of these responses, cell-to-cell communication, biofilm formation and interactions of bacteria with higher eukaryotes. Her group’s major research interest is on the investigation of mechanisms of survival and persistence of pathogens in the environment, and what impact these mechanisms have on virulence and pathogenicity in the host.

 Current research areas include:

•       Mechanisms of survival and persistence of pathogens in the environment, and what impact these mechanisms have on virulence and pathogenicity in the host

•       Co-adaptation of pathogens and predators

•       Evolutionary drivers and consequences of bacterial adaptation to stresses

•       Interactions of prokaryotes and eukaryotes and predation as a driving force for evolution of pathogenicity

•       Predicting the emergence of new pathogens

•       Quorum sensing & biofilms - formation and control

•       Prediction and prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs)

•       Identification of novel antiprotozoal and anthelminthic compounds