Dr. Levitin, who joined KGI in March 2013, received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and her PhD in Biotechnology at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She then worked on identifying new treatment options for patients suffering from Candida infections at the Biotechnology Research Institute – National Research Council of Canada. She conducted her postdoctoral studies at McGill University Medical School and at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Levitin is interested in studying host immune response to bacterial / fungal infections, and in developing vaccines for prevention of microbial infections. She is also interested in defining biomarkers for rapid detection of microbial infections and autoimmune diseases.
She is the Director of KGI’s Master of Science in Applied Life Sciences program and co-director of the Master of Science in Translational Medicine program.
Patel, T. and Levitin, A., Escherichia coli adaptive resistance to clinical antibiotics, JSM Microbiol. 2014, Jan. 28; 2(1): 1007
Levitin A, Yanofsky C. Positions of Trp codons in the leader peptide-coding region of the AT operon influence anti-trap synthesis and trp operon expression in Bacillus licheniformis. J Bacteriol. 2010 Mar;192(6):1518-26.
Levitin A, Whiteway M. Drosophila innate immunity and response to fungal infections. Cell Microbiol. 2008 May;10(5):1021-6. Review.
Levitin A, Whiteway M. The effect of prostaglandin E2 on transcriptional responses of Candida albicans. Microbiol Res. 2007;162(3):201-10
Martchenko M, Levitin A, Whiteway M. Transcriptional activation domains of the Candida albicans Gcn4p and Gal4p homologs. Eukaryot Cell. 2007 Feb;6(2):291-301.
Martchenko M, Levitin A, Hogues H, Nantel A, Whiteway M. Transcriptional rewiring of fungal galactose-metabolism circuitry. Curr Biol. 2007 Jun 19;17(12):1007-13.
Levitin A, Marcil A, Tettweiler G, Laforest MJ, Oberholzer U, Alarco AM, Thomas DY, Lasko P, Whiteway M. Drosophila melanogaster Thor and response toCandida albicans infection. Eukaryot Cell. 2007 Apr;6(4):658-63.
Braun BR, van Het Hoog M, d’Enfert C, Martchenko M, Dungan J, Kuo A, Inglis DO, Uhl MA, Hogues H, Berriman M, Lorenz M, Levitin A, Oberholzer U, Bachewich C, Harcus D, Marcil A, Dignard D, Iouk T, Zito R, Frangeul L, Tekaia F, Rutherford K, Wang E, Munro CA, Bates S, Gow NA, Hoyer LL, Köhler G, Morschhäuser J, Newport G, Znaidi S, Raymond M, Turcotte B, Sherlock G, Costanzo M, Ihmels J, Berman J, Sanglard D, Agabian N, Mitchell AP, Johnson AD, Whiteway M, Nantel A. A human-curated annotation of the Candida albicansgenome. PLoS Genet. 2005 Jul;1(1):36-57
Gidda SK, Miersch O, Levitin A, Schmidt J, Wasternack C, Varin L. Biochemical and molecular characterization of a hydroxyjasmonate sulfotransferase from Arabidopsis thaliana. J Biol Chem. 2003 May 16;278(20):17895-900.