Dr Yogitha Srikhanta is a Level B postdoctoral researcher located in the Department of Microbiology, Monash University. Her research focusses on understanding the genetic and molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis including; epigenetic-mediated gene regulation, virulence gene characterisation, identifying novel vaccine candidates and antibiotic resistance.

She obtained her PhD from the University of Queensland in October 2007 under the supervision of Prof Michael Jennings. During this time, she was the first to report on a novel bacterial epigenetic regulator and is recognised as a world leader in bacterial epigenetics.

In 2009, she was one of six recipients of a Griffith University Postdoctoral Fellowship, which she relinquished in 2011 when awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship. During this fellowship (2011-2014) she was based at the University of Melbourne, investigating virulence gene regulation in Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli under the supervision of Prof Roy Robins-Browne and host-pathogen interactions under the supervision of Prof Elizabeth Hartland. She was a highly productive NHMRC Early Career Fellowship recipient with 10 publications between when her fellowship was awarded and expired. During this time (2013-2014) she developed two independent projects resulting in 2 first-author publications.

In 2015, she moved to Monash to work with Prof Dena Lyras where she leads Clostridiodies difficile sporulation and AMR related projects. Within a year of starting her first project she was awarded a Monash University Platform Access Grant. This project aresulted in a patent, commercial funding, a lead author Nature Microbiology paper and media attention.

In 2017, she was awarded an NHMRC grant as CIA which allowed her to establish her own separate research program on gut pathogen epigenetic gene regulation. In 2018, she was awarded a C. difficile AMR related ARC grant as CIB and a Monash University Platform Access Grant. In 2019, she was awarded a Monash Warwick Catalyst Grant as a co-investigator based on her C. difficile AMR work.

She has co-authored 36 papers (11 first-author) in leading high impact journals such as PNAS, Nucleic Acids Research, Nature Reviews Microbiology, Nature Communication, Nature Medicine and Nature Microbiology. She was invited by Nature Reviews Microbiology to write a first-author review in 2010.

Her responsibilities are divided between research, teaching and administration. She currently supervises 4 PhD students.