Christina Spry completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours at the Australian National University (ANU), studying both chemistry and biology. She continued at the ANU for her graduate studies, and in 2009 was awarded a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for her work with Prof Kevin Saliba, investigating and targeting the metabolism of vitamin B5 by the human malaria parasite. After her PhD, Christina briefly worked as a postdoc with Profs Saliba and Kiaran Kirk, before being awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship. Enjoying work at the interface of chemistry and biology, but keen to try her hand at fragment-based drug discovery, she used her Fellowship to switch target organisms (to Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and move to the University of Cambridge, UK, to work with Prof Chris Abell. During this time, she contributed to an international consortium focused on identifying ‘High-quality hits against TB’ (Hit-TB). After four years in the Abell group (2011 – 2015), she returned to the Saliba lab, ANU, to complete the return-leg of her NHMRC Fellowship, where she continued until 2022 when she was appointed lecturer and group leader, also at ANU. Her group – the infectious diseases drug discovery group, based in the Research School of Biology – focuses on validating new drug targets and identifying new drug leads to combat key pathogenic microbes responsible for human disease. The primary diseases in their sights are malaria and tuberculosis.

Christina has a keen interest in antimicrobial drug discovery.  To this end her research is focused on validating new drug targets and identifying new drugs to combat key pathogenic microbes responsible for human disease.  The primary diseases in her sights are malaria (caused by Plasmodium parasites) and tuberculosis (TB, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Her research group uses a multi-level approach to discover drug targets, specifically through learning from successful antimicrobials and uncovering microbial dependencies critical within the relevant host environment. To identify drug leads, they use strategies such as (i) drug repurposing and (ii) fragment-based drug discovery, an approach by which inhibitors are iteratively built from small chemical fragments using protein structures to guide the process. They combine protein biophysics and biochemistry, structural biology, cell and molecular biology, and cellular biochemistry, to achieve a holistic understanding of drug targets and their interactions with ligands.