Lecturer, School of Chemistry, Monash University, Monash College City Campus AUSTRALIA
Vibrational Spectroscopy as a Next-Generation Phenotypic Probing Tool for AMR. Unlocking Fundamental Insights and Driving Rapid Diagnostics
Host: L. Banks
Abstract
Dr. Kamila Kochan is a group leader at the School of Chemistry as well as at the Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, specializing in vibrational spectroscopy and its applications in microbiology and biomedical research. She obtained her PhD in Chemistry in 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Małgorzata Barańska at Jagiellonian University. Throughout her career, Dr. Kochan has worked in leading spectroscopic laboratories worldwide, including the Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena, Germany, the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) at the University of Manchester, and as a postdoctoral researcher at both the School of Chemistry and the School of Translational Medicine at Monash University.
Since 2023, Dr. Kochan has led her own research group at Monash University. Her work spans across biospectroscopy and chemometrics, with a strong focus on pioneering spectroscopy-based bacterial diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research. She has made significant contributions to ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and machine learning-based diagnostics, developing next-generation tools that drastically reduce the time required for antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST). Dr. Kochan has also been at the forefront of advancing nanoscale spectroscopy, particularly AFM-IR, to study resistant bacteria at an unprecedented level of detail.
Dr. Kochan published over 50 research articles, with her work cited more than 3,800 times, and holds two patents, including one for a spectroscopy-based antibiotic susceptibility testing method. In recognition of her ground-breaking contributions, she was named the Australian National Leader in Physics and Molecular Spectroscopy in 2022, an exceptional achievement early in her career. Her research is highly translational, bridging spectroscopy, microbiology, and clinical diagnostics to develop innovative solutions for infectious disease management. Through active collaborations with industry and clinical partners, Dr. Kochan continues to push the boundaries of biospectroscopy in medical applications.
International Seminar Programme
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