Chemical Probes in Antifungal Research: Decoding Mechanisms, Resistance, and Drug Discovery Concepts

Speaker: Prof. Micha Fridman, School of Chemistry, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Date:11 December 2026
Time: 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Venue: CCEB NL Conference Room (02-01L)
Host: Asst Prof. Qiao Yuan

Biography

Professor Micha Fridman is a faculty member at the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University, where he also serves as Chair of the department. His research focuses on the development and understanding of antimicrobial agents, with particular emphasis on antibiotics and antifungal compounds. By combining approaches from organic chemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology, his work aims to overcome drug resistance and enhance therapeutic efficacy.

Professor Fridman earned his BA, MSc, and PhD in chemistry from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University, specializing in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry. Since joining Tel Aviv University in 2008, he has established an interdisciplinary lab that explores the chemical biology of microbial systems, antibiotic resistance mechanisms, and the design of novel bioactive molecules. He is a pioneer in the development of fluorescent antifungal agents used to study drug action and resistance in real time through live-cell fluorescence microscopy. This work has provided new insights into how antifungal drugs reach and interact with their intracellular targets, and how fungal cells evade their effects.

The Fridman research group employs a range of tools including synthetic chemistry, enzymology, confocal microscopy, and structural biology to investigate how antimicrobial agents interact with their cellular environments. Key research areas include membrane-active antibiotics, the molecular basis of aminoglycoside resistance, and strategies to disrupt biofilm formation.