Maya Farha, Ph.D. 

Position: Research Associate

About: Maya completed her PhD in September 2014 in Biochemistry at McMaster University where she worked on using chemical-chemical combinations as tools of biology and as routes to drug discovery. She joined the Brown lab as a Research Associate shorty thereafter where she continues to explore strategies for novel antibacterial drug discovery.

 
 

Publications: 

Featured
CARD 2023: expanded curation, support for machine learning, and resistome prediction at the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database

Authors: Alcock BP, Huynh W … Bhando B, Carfrae LA, Farha MA, French S, Gordzevich R, Rachwalski K, Tu MM … Brown ED … McArthur AG.

Reference: Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 January 6; doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac920

Genetic and Chemical Screening Reveals Targets and Compounds to Potentiate Gram-Positive Antibiotics against Gram-Negative Bacteria

Authors: Klobucar K, Jardine E, Farha MA, MacKinnon MR, Fragis M, Nkonge B, Bhando T, Borrillo L, Tsai CN, Johnson JW, Coombes BK, Magolan J, Brown ED.

Reference: ACS Infect. Dis. 2022 September 13; doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.2c00357

Preclinical Development of Pentamidine Analogs Identifies a Potent and Nontoxic Antibiotic Adjuvant

Authors: MacNair CR, Farha MA, Serrano-Wu MH, Lee KK, Hubbard B, Côté JP, Carfrae LA, Tu MM, Gaulin JL, Hunt DK, Hung DT, Brown ED.

Reference: ACS Infect. Dis. 2022 March 23; doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.1c00482

Structural Insights into the Inhibition of Undecaprenyl Pyrophosphate Synthase from Gram-Positive Bacteria

Authors: Workman SD, Day J, Farha MA, El Zahed SS, Bon C, Brown ED, Organ MG, Strynadka, NC.

Reference: J. Med. Chem. 2021 September 2; doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00941

A Staphylococcus aureus clpX Mutant Used as a Unique Screening Tool to Identify Cell Wall Synthesis Inhibitors that Reverse Beta-Lactam Resistance in MRSA

Authors: Bæk KT, Jensen C, Farha MA, Nielsen TK, Paknejadi E, Mebus VH, Vestergaard M, Brown ED, Frees D

Reference: Front. Mol. Biosci. 2021 June 4; doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.691569

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Systems-Level Chemical Biology to Accelerate Antibiotic Drug Discovery

Authors: Farha MA, French S, and Brown ED.

Reference: Acc. Chem. Res.. 2021 Mar 31; doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.1c00011

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Physicochemical and Structural Parameters Contributing to the Antibacterial Activity and Efflux Susceptibility of Small-Molecule Inhibitors of Escherichia coli

Authors: El Zahed SS, French S, Farha MA, Kumar G, and Brown ED.

Reference: AAC. 2021 Jan 19; doi: 10.1128/AAC.01925-20.

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Overcoming Acquired and Native Macrolide Resistance with Bicarbonate

Authors: Farha MA, MacNair CR, Carfrae LA, El Zahed SS, Ellis MJ, Tran HKR, McArthur AG, Brown ED

Reference: ACS Infect. Dis. 2020 Sept 08; doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00340

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Uncovering the Hidden Antibiotic Potential of Cannabis

Authors: Farha MA*, El-Halfawy OM*, Gale RT, MacNair CR, Carfrae LA, Zhang X, Jentsch NG, Magolan J, Brown ED.

Reference: ACS Infect. Dis. 2020 Feb 04; doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.9b00419

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Potentiation of Antibiotics against Gram-Negative Bacteria by Polymyxin B Analogue SPR741 from Unique Perturbation of the Outer Membrane

Authors: French S, Farha M, Ellis MJ, Sameer Z, Côté JP, Cotroneo N, Lister T, Rubio A, Brown ED.
Reference: ACS Infect. Dis. 2019 Sept 30th; doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.9b00159

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Drug repurposing for antimicrobial discovery.

Authors: Farha MA, Brown ED.
Reference: Nat. Microbiol. 2019 Mar 04; doi: 10.1038/s41564-019-0357-1

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Bicarbonate alters bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics by targeting the proton motive force

Authors: Farha MA, French S, Stokes JM, Brown ED.
Reference: ACS Infect Dis. 2017 Dec 21;4(3):382-390. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.7b00194.

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Pentamidine sensitizes Gram-negative pathogens to antibiotics and overcomes acquired colistin resistance

Authors: Stokes JM, MacNair CR, Ilyas B, French S, Côté JP, Bouwman C, Farha MA, Sieron AO, Whitfield C, Coombes BK, Brown, ED.
Reference: Nature Microbiology. 2017 Mar 06;2(5):17028. doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.28

Potentiation of Aminoglycoside Activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Targeting the AmgRS Envelope Stress-Responsive Two-Component System.
Potentiation of Aminoglycoside Activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Targeting the AmgRS Envelope Stress-Responsive Two-Component System.

Authors: Poole K, Gilmour C, Farha MA, Mullen E, Lau CH, Brown ED.

Reference: Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2016 May 23;60(6):3509-18. 
Strategies for target identification of antimicrobial natural products

Authors: Farha MA, Brown ED
Reference: Nat Prod Rep. 2016 May 4;33(5):668-80. doi: 10.1039/c5np00127g.

Unconventional screening approaches for antibiotic discovery.

Authors: Farha MA, Brown ED. 
Reference: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2015 Sep;1354:54-66. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12803. Epub 2015 Jun 22.

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Antagonism screen for inhibitors of bacterial cell wall biogenesis uncovers an inhibitor of undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase

Authors: Farha MA, Czarny TL, Myers CL, Worrall LJ, French S, Conrady DG, Wang Y, Oldfield E, Strynadka NC, Brown ED.
Reference: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Sep 1;112(35):11048-53. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1511751112. Epub 2015 Aug 17.

Designing analogs of ticlopidine, a wall teichoic acid inhibitor, to avoid formation of its oxidative metabolites.

Authors: Farha MA, Koteva K, Gale RT, Sewell EW, Wright GD, Brown ED.
Reference: Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2014 Feb 1;24(3):905-10. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2013.12.069. Epub 2013 Dec 23.

Collapsing the proton motive force to identify synergistic combinations against Staphylococcus aureus

Authors: Farha MA, Verschoor CP, Bowdish D, Brown ED.
Reference: Chem Biol. 2013 Sep 19;20(9):1168-78. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2013.07.006. Epub 2013 Aug 22.

Inhibition of WTA synthesis blocks the cooperative action of PBPs and sensitizes MRSA to β-lactams

Authors: Farha MA, Leung A, Sewell EW, D'Elia MA, Allison SE, Ejim L, Pereira PM, Pinho MG, Wright GD, Brown ED.
Reference: ACS Chem Biol. 2013 Jan 18;8(1):226-33. doi: 10.1021/cb300413m. Epub 2012 Oct 19.

Combinations of antibiotics and nonantibiotic drugs enhance antimicrobial efficacy

Authors: Ejim L, Farha MA, Falconer SB, Wildenhain J, Coombes BK, Tyers M, Brown ED, Wright GD.
Reference: Nat Chem Biol. 2011 Jun;7(6):348-50. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.559. Epub 2011 Apr 24.

Chemical probes of Escherichia coli uncovered through chemical-chemical interaction profiling with compounds of known biological activity

Authors: Farha MA, Brown ED.
Reference: Chem Biol. 2010 Aug 27;17(8):852-62. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2010.06.008.

Chemical genomic approaches to study model microbes

Authors: Barker CA, Farha MA, Brown ED.
Reference: Chem Biol. 2010 Jun 25;17(6):624-32. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2010.05.010. Review.