From middle school classroom to medical crisis, two paths converge at USF in battle against infectious disease

By Torie Doll, University Communications and Marketing

Claudia Zamora Cisnero was born in Cuba and moved to the United States as a teenager. She said she "fell in love with science" the first time she looked through a microscope, but her path to research was not direct.

After earning her bachelor's degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of South Florida, Zamora Cisnero became a middle school science teacher. Then, a classroom conversation changed her trajectory. When she told her students that scientists were working to cure diseases, one replied, "You should be one of those people."

She took that suggestion to heart and applied to graduate school at USF. After starting as a non-thesis master's student, she found what she describes as "almost like a calling" while volunteering in the laboratory of Lindsey "Les" Shaw, a professor of molecular biosciences.

For Shaw, the fight against drug-resistant bacteria is personal. Growing up in England, he developed a chronic staph infection after hip surgery as a teenager. The infection, caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, led to years of hospitalizations.

"Bugs, drugs and hospitals were kind of my life," Shaw said.

The experience ignited a lifelong fascination with bacteria that has driven his academic path. Today, Shaw leads research on drug-resistant pathogens and works with clinicians to better understand how bacteria cause disease and how to treat them. His work anchors the USF Center for Antimicrobial Resistance, launched with seed funding from the university's CREATE award to advance collaborative strategies to curb the spread of resistant infections.

Under Shaw's mentorship, Zamora Cisnero advanced from volunteer to master's researcher and now doctoral candidate. Shaw said her passion and curiosity were evident from the start and all she needed was to be given a chance.

"Dr. Shaw believed in me just like my students did," Zamora Cisnero said. "My wonderful group of lab mates also believed in me, and they have helped me come this far."

Zamora Cisnero wants to have her own lab one day and to focus her research on infectious diseases that affect expectant mothers.