Rate My Professor Helen Zgurskaya

Helen I. Zgurskaya is the George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma, where she joined the faculty in 2000 as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2007. She received her B.S. in 1989 from Dnepropetrovsk State University, Ukraine, and her Ph.D. in microbiology in 1992 from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia. Zgurskaya completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University School of Medicine from 1995 to 1996 and at the University of California, Berkeley from 1996 to 1999. Throughout her career, she has made pivotal contributions to the field of bacterial antibiotic resistance.

The research in Zgurskaya's laboratory focuses on permeability barriers of bacterial pathogens, emphasizing quantitative and mechanistic characterization of membrane transporters, antibiotic permeation, and active drug efflux. Her group develops cell-based and biochemical assays to study compound permeation into bacteria and interactions of multidrug efflux pumps with substrates and inhibitors. As a founding member of the Center for Antibiotic Discovery and Resistance, Zgurskaya co-leads an international team of 13 research groups across six academic campuses and national laboratories, advancing efforts in three key areas: inhibition of multidrug efflux assembly, synergistic interactions between efflux and outer membrane barriers, and efflux transporters in Gram-positive bacteria and mycobacteria. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including "Synergy between Active Efflux and Outer Membrane Diffusion Predicts Antibiotic Efficacy against Gram-Negatives" (2017) and "Antibiotic Resistance Mediated by the MacB ABC Transporter" (2018), several book chapters, and co-edited "Mechanisms of Drug Efflux and Strategies to Combat Them" (2010). Notable honors include the George Lynn Cross Research Professorship (2019), election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2024), and the Provost's Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity (2025). Zgurskaya serves as associate editor for ACS Infectious Diseases and on the editorial boards of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and Frontiers in Microbiology.