Aleksandra Petrovic Fabijan | Research projects & activities

Adjunct Lecturer

Faculty of Medicine and Health

Phage-informed diagnostics for precision therapy. This project develops diagnostic tools that simulate infection-relevant stress conditions to better predict bacterial responses to phage treatment. A key focus is bacterial L-form switching (a cell wall-deficient state that confers resistance to both antibiotics and therapeutic phages) and strategies to anticipate and overcome phage resistance before it arises clinically.
Targeting hidden bacterial states in AMR. This project investigates how L-form bacteria evade phage killing in persistent infections (urinary tract, bone, prosthetic devices) and identifies phage types that remain effective against these forms. The work combines microbiology, phage biology, and genetic engineering to develop next-generation phage therapeutics.
Adaptive landscapes of phage-bacteria co-evolution: ecology and prediction. A new PhD student will join the laboratory in October 2026 to work on phage-bacteria co-evolution and predictive modelling under Alex's primary supervision. This project uses high-throughput experimental evolution, multi-omics profiling, and machine learning to map how ecological conditions shape resistance evolution and to build predictive models of co-evolutionary outcomes.

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RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
Understanding mammalian immune responses to phage therapy

DrAleksandra Petrovic Fabijan