
Mark Blaskovich
- Email:
- m.blaskovich@imb.uq.edu.au
- Phone:
- +61 7 334 62039
- Mobile:
- 0414955380
Overview
Background
Professor Mark Blaskovich is an antibiotic hunter and Director of Translation at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland. He is co-founder and former Director of the Centre for Superbug Solutions at IMB.
A medicinal chemist with 15 years of industrial drug development experience prior to his academic career, Mark has been developing new antibiotics to treat drug resistant pathogens and using modified antibiotics to detect bacterial infections. He is a co-founder of the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery, a global antibiotic discovery initiative, and has led a number of UQ-industry collaborations focused on antibiotic development. An inventor on eleven patent families, Mark has developed drugs in clinical trials, published more than eighty research articles, and received over $10m in grant funding.
Availability
- Professor Mark Blaskovich is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), University of Victoria
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Waterloo
Works
Search Professor Mark Blaskovich’s works on UQ eSpace
2020
Journal Article
An amphipathic peptide with antibiotic activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria
Elliott, Alysha G., Huang, Johnny X., Neve, Søren, Zuegg, Johannes, Edwards, Ingrid A., Cain, Amy K., Boinett, Christine J., Barquist, Lars, Lundberg, Carina Vingsbo, Steen, Jason, Butler, Mark S., Mobli, Mehdi, Porter, Kaela M., Blaskovich, Mark A. T., Lociuro, Sergio, Strandh, Magnus and Cooper, Matthew A. (2020). An amphipathic peptide with antibiotic activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Nature Communications, 11 (1) 3184, 3184. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16950-x
2020
Journal Article
Antibiotics special issue: Challenges and opportunities in antibiotic discovery and development
Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Antibiotics special issue: Challenges and opportunities in antibiotic discovery and development. ACS Infectious Diseases, 6 (6), 1286-1288. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00331
2020
Journal Article
Correction: Metal complexes as a promising source for new antibiotics (vol 11, pg 2627, 2020)
Frei, Angelo, Zuegg, Johannes, Elliott, Alysha G., Baker, Murray, Braese, Stefan, Brown, Christopher, Chen, Feng, Dowson, Christopher G., Dujardin, Gilles, Jung, Nicole, King, A. Paden, Mansour, Ahmed M., Massi, Massimiliano, Moat, John, Mohamed, Heba A., Renfrew, Anna K., Rutledge, Peter J., Sadler, Peter J., Todd, Matthew H., Willans, Charlotte E., Wilson, Justin J., Cooper, Matthew A. and Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Correction: Metal complexes as a promising source for new antibiotics (vol 11, pg 2627, 2020). Chemical Science, 11 (17), 4531-4531. doi: 10.1039/d0sc90075c
2020
Journal Article
Discovery of cephalosporin-3′-diazeniumdiolates that show dual antibacterial and antibiofilm effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical cystic fibrosis isolates and efficacy in a murine respiratory infection model
Rineh, Ardeshir, Soren, Odel, McEwan, Timothy, Ravikumar, Vikashini, Poh, Wee Han, Azamifar, Fereshteh, Naimi-Jamal, M. Reza, Cheung, Chen-Yi, Elliott, Alysha G., Zuegg, Johannes, Blaskovich, Mark A. T., Cooper, Matthew A., Dolange, Victoria, Christodoulides, Myron, Cook, Gregory M., Rice, Scott A., Faust, Saul N., Webb, Jeremy S. and Kelso, Michael J. (2020). Discovery of cephalosporin-3′-diazeniumdiolates that show dual antibacterial and antibiofilm effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical cystic fibrosis isolates and efficacy in a murine respiratory infection model. ACS Infectious Diseases, 6 (6) acsinfecdis.0c00070, 1460-1479. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00070
2020
Journal Article
Complete genome sequences of clinical Pandoraea fibrosis isolates
Pitt, Miranda E., Nguyen, Son H., Duarte, Tânia P. S., Roddam, Louise F., Blaskovich, Mark A. T., Cooper, Matthew A. and Coin, Lachlan J. M. (2020). Complete genome sequences of clinical Pandoraea fibrosis isolates. Microbiology Resource Announcements, 9 (13) e00060-20. doi: 10.1128/mra.00060-20
2020
Journal Article
Light-activated rhenium complexes with dual mode of action against bacteria
Frei, Angelo, Amado, Maite, Cooper, Matthew A. and Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Light-activated rhenium complexes with dual mode of action against bacteria. Chemistry: A European Journal, 26 (13) chem.201904689, 2762-2762. doi: 10.1002/chem.201904689
2020
Journal Article
Visualization of bacterial resistance using fluorescent antibiotic probes
Stone, M. Rhia L., Phetsang, Wanida, Cooper, Matthew A. and Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Visualization of bacterial resistance using fluorescent antibiotic probes. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2020 (157) e60743. doi: 10.3791/60743
2020
Journal Article
Evaluating the genome and resistome of extensively drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae using native DNA and RNA Nanopore sequencing
Pitt, Miranda E., Nguyen, Son H., Duarte, Tânia P. S., Teng, Haotian, Blaskovich, Mark A. T., Cooper, Matthew A. and Coin, Lachlan J. M. (2020). Evaluating the genome and resistome of extensively drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae using native DNA and RNA Nanopore sequencing. GigaScience, 9 (2) giaa002, 1-14. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giaa002
2020
Journal Article
Flow-cytometry detection of fluorescent magnetic nanoparticle clusters increases sensitivity of dengue immunoassay
Sanjaya, K.C., Ranzoni, Andrea, Hung, Jacky, Blaskovich, Mark A.T., Watterson, Daniel, Young, Paul R. and Cooper, Matthew A. (2020). Flow-cytometry detection of fluorescent magnetic nanoparticle clusters increases sensitivity of dengue immunoassay. Analytica Chimica Acta, 1107, 85-91. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2020.02.007
2020
Journal Article
Chemical synthesis of human trefoil factor 1 (TFF1) and its homodimer provides novel insights into their mechanisms of action
Braga Emidio, Nayara, Baik, Hayeon, Lee, David, Stürmer, René, Heuer, Jörn, Elliott, Alysha G., Blaskovich, Mark A. T., Haupenthal, Katharina, Tegtmeyer, Nicole, Hoffmann, Werner, Schroeder, Christina I. and Muttenthaler, Markus (2020). Chemical synthesis of human trefoil factor 1 (TFF1) and its homodimer provides novel insights into their mechanisms of action. Chemical Communications, 56 (47), 6420-6423. doi: 10.1039/d0cc02321c
2020
Journal Article
Antitubercular and Antiparasitic 2-Nitroimidazopyrazinones with Improved Potency and Solubility
Ang, Chee Wei, Tan, Lendl, Sykes, Melissa L., Abugharbiyeh, Neda, Debnath, Anjan, Reid, Janet C., West, Nicholas P., Avery, Vicky M., Cooper, Matthew A. and Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Antitubercular and Antiparasitic 2-Nitroimidazopyrazinones with Improved Potency and Solubility. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 63 (24), 15726-15751. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01372
2020
Journal Article
Fluorescent macrolide probes – synthesis and use in evaluation of bacterial resistance
Stone, M. Rhia L., Łapińska, Urszula, Pagliara, Stefano, Masi, Muriel, Blanchfield, Joanne T., Cooper, Matthew A. and Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Fluorescent macrolide probes – synthesis and use in evaluation of bacterial resistance. RSC Chemical Biology, 1 (5), 395-404. doi: 10.1039/d0cb00118j
2020
Other Outputs
Antibacterial Agents
Cooper, Matthew and Blaskovich, Mark (2020). Antibacterial Agents. EP3105244.
2020
Journal Article
Hydroxyl substituted benzoic acid/cinnamic acid derivatives: tyrosinase inhibitory kinetics, anti-melanogenic activity and molecular docking studies
Nazir, Yasir, Saeed, Aamer, Rafiq, Muhammad, Afzal, Samina, Ali, Anser, Latif, Muhammad, Zuegg, Johannes, Hussein, Waleed M., Fercher, Christian, Barnard, Ross T., Cooper, Matthew A., Blaskovich, Mark A.T., Ashraf, Zaman and Ziora, Zyta M. (2020). Hydroxyl substituted benzoic acid/cinnamic acid derivatives: tyrosinase inhibitory kinetics, anti-melanogenic activity and molecular docking studies. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 30 (1) 126722, 1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2019.126722
2020
Book Chapter
Solid-phase synthesis of octapeptin lipopeptides
Hansford, Karl A., Ziora, Zyta M., Cooper, Matthew A. and Blaskovich, Mark A. T. (2020). Solid-phase synthesis of octapeptin lipopeptides. Peptide synthesis: methods and protocols. (pp. 199-213) edited by Waleed M. Hussein, Mariusz Skwarczynski and Istvan Toth. New York, NY United States: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0227-0_13
2019
Journal Article
Non-antibiotic small-molecule regulation of DHFR-based destabilizing domains in vivo
Peng, Hui, Chau, Viet Q., Phetsang, Wanida, Sebastian, Rebecca M., Stone, M. Rhia L., Datta, Shyamtanu, Renwick, Marian, Tamer, Yusuf T., Toprak, Erdal, Koh, Andrew Y., Blaskovich, Mark A.T. and Hulleman, John D. (2019). Non-antibiotic small-molecule regulation of DHFR-based destabilizing domains in vivo. Molecular Therapy - Methods and Clinical Development, 15, 27-39. doi: 10.1016/j.omtm.2019.08.002
2019
Journal Article
Tyrosinase inhibitors as potential antibacterial agents
Yuan, Ye, Jin, Wanli, Nazir, Yasir, Fercher, Christian, Thomas Blaskovich, Mark A., Cooper, Matthew A., Barnard, Ross T. and Ziora, Zyta M. (2019). Tyrosinase inhibitors as potential antibacterial agents. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 187 111892, 111892. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.111892
2019
Other Outputs
Antibacterial Agents
Cooper, Matthew and Blaskovich, Mark (2019). Antibacterial Agents. JP6602318.
2019
Journal Article
Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search
Brown, Peter, Tan, Aik-Choon, El-Esawi, Mohamed A., Liehr, Thomas, Blanck, Oliver, Gladue, Douglas P., Almeida, Gabriel M. F., Cernava, Tomislav, Sorzano, Carlos O., Yeung, Andy W. K., Engel, Michael S., Chandrasekaran, Arun Richard, Muth, Thilo, Staege, Martin S., Daulatabad, Swapna V., Widera, Darius, Zhang, Junpeng, Meule, Adrian, Honjo, Ken, Pourret, Olivier, Yin, Cong-Cong, Zhang, Zhongheng, Cascella, Marco, Flegel, Willy A., Goodyear, Carl S., van Raaij, Mark J., Bukowy-Bieryllo, Zuzanna, Campana, Luca G., Kurniawan, Nicholas A. ... RELISH Consortium (2019). Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search. Database-The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation, 2019 baz085, 1-67. doi: 10.1093/database/baz085
2019
Journal Article
In vitro antimicrobial activity of acne drugs against skin-associated bacteria
Blaskovich, Mark A. T., Elliott, Alysha G., Kavanagh, Angela M., Ramu, Soumya and Cooper, Matthew A. (2019). In vitro antimicrobial activity of acne drugs against skin-associated bacteria. Scientific Reports, 9 (1) 14658, 14658. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50746-4
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Mark Blaskovich is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
-
Functionalised antibiotics for diagnostics and therapeutics
The increasing incidence of infections caused by drug resistant bacteria and fungi poses a significant and increasing threat to global human health, with predicted annual mortality of 10 million people by 2050. It is imperative to advance new technologies capable of rapidly and accurately diagnosing infections to enable timely and appropriate therapy. We must develop new antibiotics with efficacy against multidrug-resistant bacteria and fungi, and new methods to rapidy diagnose infections. To enable this we require fundamental studies that probe the chemical biology of antibiotic action and investigate microbial growth, metabolism and resistance.
This research program is designed to achieve these goals, based on the chemical functionalisation of antibiotics with a readily derivatised handle. The resulting set of versatile intermediates is then modified to create 1) fluorescent probes that can catalyse basic research and lead to new assays, 2) clinical imaging agents to visualise microbial infections, and 3) novel hybrid therapeutics. The project requires talented synthetic organic chemists with an interest in multidisciplinary research.
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Antibiotic potentiators as an alternative therapeutic option for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant Gram-negative infections.
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Johannes Zuegg
-
Doctor Philosophy
Understanding Molecular Accumulation in antimicrobial resistant microbes
Principal Advisor
-
Doctor Philosophy
Selenium - The SuperElement against Superbugs
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Joanne Blanchfield
-
Doctor Philosophy
Novel antibiotics containing tyrosinase inhibitors
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zyta M Ziora
-
Doctor Philosophy
Investigations of novel antimicrobial agents and formulations to treat topical agricultural infections.
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Conny Turni
-
Doctor Philosophy
Hijacking Iron Uptake to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Vito Ferro, Dr Anthony Verderosa
-
Doctor Philosophy
Translating the Targeted Protein Degradation therapeutic approach into the context of antibacterial drug discovery: Investigating bacterial protease-engaging antibacterial degrader constructs
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Anthony Verderosa
-
Doctor Philosophy
Antibiotic Conjugates: Joining Together to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Vito Ferro
-
Master Philosophy
The antibacterial mechanism of action of cannabidiol
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Johannes Zuegg, Dr Tanuka Sen
-
Doctor Philosophy
Investigations of the interactions between fluorescent antibiotics and bacteria
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Sanjaya Kc, Dr Anthony Verderosa
-
Doctor Philosophy
Clicking Conjugates into Place for the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Joanne Blanchfield, Dr Anthony Verderosa
-
Doctor Philosophy
Targeting the Biogenesis of Resistance Enzymes to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ulrike Kappler, Professor Ian Henderson, Dr Anthony Verderosa
-
Doctor Philosophy
Mechanism of action of MgO
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Conny Turni, Dr Sean Bisset, Professor Ian Henderson
-
Doctor Philosophy
Development of Metal Organic Frameworks for targeted oral drug delivery
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Anjana Jayasree, Professor Amirali Popat
-
Doctor Philosophy
Seeing the Unseen: Imaging Bacterial Infections
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kristofer Thurecht, Dr Rhia Stone
-
Doctor Philosophy
Targeting bacterial biofilms in patients with gastrointestinal disorders
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Markus Muttenthaler
-
Doctor Philosophy
How does cannabidiol kill bacteria?
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Tanuka Sen, Dr Johannes Zuegg
-
Doctor Philosophy
A global quantitative genetic network for Escherichia coli
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ian Henderson
-
Doctor Philosophy
Medicinal chemistry strategies to remove bacterial biofilms associated with gastrointestinal disorders
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Markus Muttenthaler
-
Doctor Philosophy
Development of computational models to discover new antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria. (Note: online component of Onawole's application lists his Master's thesis title instead of this project)
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Johannes Zuegg
-
Doctor Philosophy
Seeing the Unseen: Imaging Bacterial Infections
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kristofer Thurecht, Dr Rhia Stone
Completed supervision
-
2024
Doctor Philosophy
Expression and Characterisation of Human Tyrosinase as a Target for Novel Inhibitor Development
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zyta M Ziora
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Structure-Activity and Structure-Toxicity Relationships of novel octapeptin antibiotic derivatives against Gram-negative Bacteria
Principal Advisor
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Deciphering Antibiotic Modes of Action and Profiling Microbial Resistance with Novel Fluorescent Probes
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ian Henderson
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Development of new bicyclic nitroimidazoles as antimicrobial agents
Principal Advisor
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Genotypic and phenotypic characterisation of Gram-positive antibiotics
Principal Advisor
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Tagged Antibiotics for Examination of Bacterial Resistance and Infection
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Joanne Blanchfield
-
2018
Doctor Philosophy
ß-hairpin antimicrobial peptides: structure, function and mode of action
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Mehdi Mobli
-
-
2025
Doctor Philosophy
Sustainable antimicrobial coating materials for potential face mask application
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Alan Rowan, Dr Nasim Amiralian
-
2024
Doctor Philosophy
Synthesis and Physico-chemical characterization of waste derived carbon adsorbents for wastewater treatment
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zyta M Ziora
-
2024
Doctor Philosophy
Development of Biobased Silver Nano-Particles for Application as Wastewater Disinfectant
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zyta M Ziora
-
2024
Doctor Philosophy
Characterising the Aat system for the acylation and secretion of CexE
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ian Henderson
-
2022
Doctor Philosophy
Advanced Formulation Technologies for Oral Delivery of Antimicrobial Agents
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Amirali Popat, Dr James Robert Falconer
-
2021
Doctor Philosophy
Investigating the Immunopharmacology of the Complement C5a Receptors, C5aR1 and C5aR2
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Richard Clark, Dr John Lee, Professor Trent Woodruff
-
2018
Doctor Philosophy
Evaluating Genotypic and Phenotypic Variability against Polymyxins and a Novel Lipopeptide, Octapeptin C4, in Antibiotic-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae
Associate Advisor
-
2016
Doctor Philosophy
Novel Nitroimidazole and Glycopeptide Antibiotics Targeting Enteric Pathogens
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Mark Blaskovich directly for media enquiries about:
- acne
- antibiotic resistance
- antibiotics
- antimicrobial resistance
- antimicrobial resistance antibiotics
- bacteria
- bacterial detection
- bacterial infection
- bacterial resistance
- drug design
- drug development
- drug discovery
- E. coli
- glycopeptide antibiotics
- golden staph
- gram negative bacteria
- gram positive bacteria
- microbiome
- octapeptin
- superbugs
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