Rate My Professor Francesca Todd Rose

Dr. Francesca Todd Rose is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences, at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with Honours (B BiomedSci (Hons)) in 2018 and her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Microbiology from 2019 to 2023 at the University of Otago. Her PhD research, supported by a University of Otago PhD Scholarship, centered on uncovering CroRS-mediated antimicrobial tolerance mechanisms in the Gram-positive pathogen Enterococcus faecalis. This work built upon earlier investigations into bacterial responses to novel antimicrobials, highlighting the role of two-component systems in cell envelope stress responses.

Todd Rose has contributed to several peer-reviewed publications advancing understanding of antimicrobial tolerance, a phenomenon that precedes resistance development in bacteria. Key papers include her co-first authorship in the 2023 Molecular Microbiology article titled 'The two-component system CroRS acts as a master regulator of cell envelope homeostasis to confer antimicrobial tolerance in the bacterial pathogen Enterococcus faecalis,' which detailed how the CroRS system regulates cell wall biogenesis, autolysin activity, and isoprenoid biosynthesis under antimicrobial stress. In 2019, she co-authored 'Genomewide Profiling of the Enterococcus faecalis Transcriptional Response to Teixobactin Reveals CroRS as an Essential Regulator of Antimicrobial Tolerance' in mSphere, demonstrating through RNA sequencing that CroRS deletion abolishes tolerance to teixobactin and other cell wall-targeting agents like vancomycin and bacitracin. Additional publications encompass 'Prolonged exposure to teixobactin generates cross-tolerance to other cell envelope-targeting antimicrobials in Enterococcus faecalis' (Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2025) and investigations into CroS signaling for cephalosporin resistance. In 2024, she received a $2000 Health Sciences Early Career Accelerator Grant for the project 'Leveraging PBT2+Zn Hypersensitivity to Counteract Antibiotic Resistance in MRSA.' She is also an Affiliate Investigator at the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery.