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Samira Dahesh

Staff Research Associate 3 & Lab Manager

Research Interests

  • Novel Antimicrobial Therapies
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions
  • Group A Streptococcal and Staphylococcal Infections

 

At the Bench

Samira Dahesh is originally from Iran and later moved to Canada where she completed her undergraduate major in Microbiology at the University of Guelph, during which time she conducted virology and molecular biology studies in the laboratories of Drs. Eva Nagy and Christopher Whitfield. After graduation she pursued research in the fields of biochemistry and medical genetics under the direction of Dr. Alan Davidson at the University of Toronto.
Samira is our lab manager and organizes most of the key operational procedures that allow our research to be performed efficiently and to the highest standards, including supervision of our team of undergraduate lab assistants. Samira also contributes her molecular genetic expertise to a large number of scientific projects examining the molecular pathogenesis of invasive group A and group B streptococcal infections, neutrophil and antimicrobial peptide function, and evaluation of novel antibacterial candidates.

Outside of Lab

Samira is also a motivated and passionate Pilates instructor. In her free time, she teaches Pilates, plays piano, and cuddles with her dog.

Academic Appointments

Year Position
2007-Present Staff Research Associate, Department of Pediatriatrics, University of California San Diego
2001-2006 Lab Technologist II, Department of Medical Genetics and Micorbiology, University of Toronto
2000 Lab Technologist I, Department of Food Science, University of Guelph
1998 Lab Technician, Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College University of Guelph

Education

University Degree Year Field
University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada B.Sc. 1998-2000 Microbiology
Seneca College, Toronto, Canada Diploma 1994-1997 Biological Research Technology

Publications

Dahesh S, Wong B, Nizet V, Sakoulas G, Tran TT, Aitken SL. Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Hardware-Associated Vertebral Osteomyelitis with Oritavancin plus Ampicillin. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2019. PMID 31235559.

Dahesh S, Nizet V, Cole JN. Study of streptococcal hemoprotein receptor (Shr) in iron acquisition and virulence of M1T1 group A streptococcus. Virulence. 2012. PMID 23076332.

Dahesh S, Hensler ME, Van Sorge NM, Gertz RE Jr, Schrag S, Nizet V, Beall BW. Point mutation in the group B streptococcal pbp2x gene conferring decreased susceptibility to beta-lactam antibiotics. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2008. PMID 18541727.

Elisabet Bjånes, Alexandra Stream, Axel B. Janssen, Paddy S. Gibson, Afonso M. Bravo, Samira Dahesh, Jonathon L. Baker, Andrew Varble, Victor Nizet and Jan-Willem Veening. An efficient in vivo-inducible CRISPR interference system for group A Streptococcus genetic analysis and pathogenesis studies. mBio. 2024.

Yuki Kinjo, Petr Illarionov, José Luis Vela, Bo Pei, Enrico Girardi, Xiangming Li, Yali Li, Masakazu Imamura, Yukihiro Kaneko, Akiko Okawara, Yoshitsugu Miyazaki, Anaximandro Gómez-Velasco, Paul Rogers, Samira Dahesh, Satoshi Uchiyama, Archana Khurana, Kazuyoshi Kawahara, Hasan Yesilkaya, Peter W Andrew, Chi-Huey Wong, Kazuyoshi Kawakami, Victor Nizet, Gurdyal S Besra, Moriya Tsuji, Dirk M Zajonc, Mitchell Kronenberg. Invariant natural killer T cells recognize glycolipids from pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria. Nat Immunol. 2011. PMID 21892173.

Nina M van Sorge, Jason N Cole , Kirsten Kuipers , Anna Henningham , Ramy K Aziz , Ana Kasirer-Friede , Leo Lin , Evelien T M Berends , Mark R Davies , Gordon Dougan , Fan Zhang , Samira Dahesh , Laura Shaw , Jennifer Gin , Madeleine Cunningham , Joseph A Merriman , Julia Hütter , Bernd Lepenies , Suzan H M Rooijakkers , Richard Malley , Mark J Walker , Sanford J Shattil , Patrick M Schlievert , Biswa Choudhury , Victor Nizet. The classical lancefield antigen of group a Streptococcus is a virulence determinant with implications for vaccine design. Cell Host Microbe. 2014. PMID 24922575

Zarrine-Afsar A, Dahesh S, Davidson AR. Protein folding kinetics provides a context-independent assessment of beta-strand propensity in the Fyn SH3 domain. J Mol Biol. 2007. PMID 17850820

Marles JA, Dahesh S, Haynes J, Andrews BJ, Davidson AR. Protein-protein interaction affinity plays a crucial role in controlling the Sho1p-mediated signal transduction pathway in yeast. Mol Cell. 2004. PMID 15200958.