UMSS20 Student Profile: Amelia St. John

Amelia St. John, Microbiology
Investigating the Role of Group B Streptococcus Prophages on Bacterial Fitness and Virulence
Mentored by Melody Neely

Amelia St. John studies how prophages residing in the Group B Streptococcus (GBS) genome impact its ability to cause disease. Pregnant mothers are often impacted by the effects of GBS, and the antibiotics used to treat it can harm the child. Understanding the disease-causing mechanisms of GBS will provide insight to a more reliable treatment method and decrease the incidence of GBS infection in the future.

“I chose to work and do research in this area because I get to work with a prominent human pathogen that is not well understood in its mechanism of causing disease,” says St. John.