I obtained my PhD degree in Biology from the University of Porto in 2013. In 2015, I joined the laboratory of Professor Sabine Ehrt at Weill Cornell Medicine (New York, US) as a postdoctoral associate to work in Mycobacterium tuberculosis target biology. From 2020 until 2023, I held junior faculty positions at Weill Cornell Medicine (New York, US), first as Instructor and later as Assistant Professor of Research. 

As junior faculty, I have established an independent line of research, supported by a NIH/NIAID R21 award (Principal Investigator), aiming at the subversion of M. tuberculosis adaptations to the host to eradicate infections. 

In July 2023, I joined the Immune Regulation research group at i3S as a CEEC Assistant Researcher to establish a team under the umbrella concept of pathogens target biology, with a current focus on M. tuberculosis. Using pathogen genetic screens (transposon sequencing and CRISPR interference) or clinical isolates libraries as starting points of inquiry, we aim at:

- Identifying and understanding the biological function of novel drug targets.

- Unveiling drug mechanisms of action, tolerance and resistance.

Current team members:

Marco Silva - PhD student

Alexandre Pinto - Research Fellow

Selected publications:

Xu Y, Ehrt S, Schnappinger D, Beites T (2023) Synthetic lethality of Mycobacterium tuberculosis NADH dehydrogenases is due to impaired NADH oxidation. mBio https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01045-23

Wong AI, Beites T, Planck KA, Li S, Poulton NC, Rhee K, Schnappinger D, Ehrt S, Rock JM. (2023) Cyclic-AMP is a critical mediator of intrinsic drug resistance and fatty acid metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. eLife  https://elifesciences.org/articles/81177

Beites T, Jansen RS, Wang R, Jinich A, Rhee KY, Schnappinger D, Ehrt S (2021) Multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro and during infection. Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26941-1

Beites T, O’Brien K, Tiwari D, Engelhart CA, Walters S, Andrews J, Yang H-J, Sutphen ML, Weiner DM, Dayao EK, Zimmerman M, Prideaux B, Desai PV, Masquelin T, Via LE, Dartois V, Boshoff HI, Clifton E. Barry III CE, Ehrt S, Schnappinger D (2019) Plasticity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis respiratory chain and its impact on tuberculosis drug development. Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12956-2

Current Funding:

NIH/NIAID R21 award (1 R21 AI168506-01A1) “Turning Mycobacterium tuberculosis appetite for fatty acids against itself”. November 2022 – October 2024.