OToole Lab News
October 20, 2011
October 10, 2011
Dartmouth CF Retreat
On Oct. 6 we held the first-ever Dartmouth CF Retreat. A total of 69 people registered for the event, including participants from several institutions in Boston (MGH, Harvard Med), the University of Vermont, and several pharma companies. Talks topics included translational studies related to CF and there was excellent discussion. There was also a poster session. We hope that this meeting, and meetings in the coming years, will foster greater interactions among CF researchers in New England.
October 05, 2011
ASSURE PROGRAM
Graduate Studies at Dartmouth has launched a new program called ASURE (Academic Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) to help undergraduates from on and off campus come to Dartmouth for a summer research experience. Check out the details at this link.
October 04, 2011
Dae Gon Ha, a 4th PhD student in the lab recently published a paper in JB (his 3rd publication). This work describes the role of HHQ, an intermediate in the synthesis of the quorum sensing molecule PQS, in the control of swarming motility by P. aeruginosa. The study was a collaborative effort with Martin Welch's group and his colleagues in the UK. Based on the findings of this study, we propose that HHQ, via control of the phenazine PCA, negatively regulates swarming via an unknown mechanism apparently independent of c-di-GMP, a known regulator of this form of surface motility.
October 03, 2011
I recently served as consulting editor for the October 2011 issue of Odyssey Magazine, focusing on "Slimy Science". This magazine is targeted for 10-16 yr age range, and included a profile of Aaron White, a high school student who worked in the lab for 4 years.
RECENT PAPER
We recently co-published a manuscript in PLoS Pathogens that utilized some mutants we built several years ago that impact flagellar function, in particular, strains defective in the flagellar motor. Using these motor mutants, Brent Berwin's research group here at Dartmouth present compelling evidence that immune cells can "sense" flagellar movement. As stated in the abstract of the paper, "These findings identify that phagocytic cells respond to flagellar movement, which represents a novel mechanism for non-opsonized phagocytic recognition of pathogenic bacteria." The manuscript can be found here.
