The bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen in humans causing severe and sometimes life threatening infections. In individuals with cystic fibrosis, a common genetic disease, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is able to infect and colonize the lungs. This chronic infection and the host's immune response progressively damages the lung tissue resulting in a loss of lung function. The long term goal of our research is to understand how the bacteria are able to infect and colonize the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients and to develop new approaches to control these infections.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa relies on a battery of extracellular and cell-associated products to attach to, replicate in and damage the host during an infection. Pseudomonas aeruginosa controls the production of these factors, called virulence factors, so that specific factors are only produced when required. The goals of this research are: 1) to characterize the molecular mechanisms controlling the expression of virulence factors, 2) to determine the specific signals controlling their production, and 3) to analyze the role and regulation of virulence factors in the lung disease associated with cystic fibrosis.
CRAIN, Karinn |
MSc |
Duong, Jessica | PhD |