Thomas Jefferson University · BiochemistryHou Antibiotics Lab
Ya-Ming Hou · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Research Focus
Dr. Ya-Ming Hou's research lab at Thomas Jefferson University focuses on discovering new antibiotics to fight resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which are notoriously difficult to target due to their protective double membrane. The lab aims to inhibit a specific bacterial enzyme, TrmD, that is crucial for protein synthesis. By screening natural products from various microbial sources, the lab hopes to identify new compounds that can penetrate bacterial cells and effectively kill these resistant organisms.
antibioticsGram-negative bacteriaTrmDnatural productsdrug discoveryantibacterial agentscell-permeabilityefflux pumpshigh-throughput screening
Research Aims
3AIM 01Screen 74,770 actinobacterial extracts for cell-permeable, TrmD-targeting natural products.
AIM 02De-replicate top hits to isolate active compounds and determine their structures.
AIM 03Test active natural products for their antibiotic efficacy and mechanisms of action.
Skills the Lab Values
cell culturehigh-throughput screening (HTS)natural product isolationantibiotic susceptibility testingfluorescence microscopygenome sequencingbioinformaticsdata analysis
Output against the department
Publications245top 31% of dept.123rd of 402
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations7.3kbottom 39% of dept.244th of 402
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.