February 22, 2014

In the second of two recent reports,  Chelsea Boyd, a recently graduated PhD student in the lab, published a collaborative paper with Sofiane El-Kirat-Chatel and Yves Dufrene, two atomic force microscopy (AFM) experts are the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. The paper, published in ACS Chemical Biology, is titled "Single-Cell and Single-Molecule Analysis Deciphers the Localization, Adhesion, and Mechanics of the Biofilm Adhesin LapA".  This report using a combination of imaging techniques (see figure), including AFM to characterize the biophysical properties of LapA, an adhesin critical for early biofilm formation by Pseudomonas fluorescens, using single molecule analysis approaches.  These studies help increase our understanding of how LapA, a member of a large family of bacterial adhesins, and its various domains contribute to the ability of P. fluorescens to attach to a wide range of surfaces.

February 19, 2014

Our recent publication, "Unique Microbial Communities Persist in Individual Cystic Fibrosis Patients throughout a Clinical Exacerbation", led by Katie Price (pictured left), a postdoctoral fellow in the O'Toole lab, and published in the journal Microbiome, was featured in the quarterly CF Literature Update reading list compiled by Gilead Pharmaceuticals.

February 17, 2014

Kurt Dahlstrom, a PhD student in the lab of co-organizer of the PI-in-Training group, organized a recent visit by an industry recruiter to come speaker with students and fellows.  Learn more about the event here.

February 14, 2014

 Chelsea Boyd, a recently graduated Ph.D. student, taught in a course at La Plata University in Argentina over the past couple of days.  She talked about her work, plus gave a couple of other lectures.  She also had the chance to visit Buenos Aires.  The course was organized by two collaborators and soon-to-be visiting scientists, Federico Sisti and Julietta Fernandez, who are faculty members at La Plata.  The top two pictures show Chelsea in her lectures, and the bottom photo is a course group picture (Chelsea is second from the right in the front row, and Julietta is on the far right in the front row).

February 04, 2014

We have had an ongoing collaboration with Brent Berwin's lab here at the Geisel School of Medicine.  The Berwin lab has discovered that macrophages can recognize bacterial motility as a signal to induce phagocytosis, and they have used Pseudomonas aeruginosa as their model organism for these studies.  In their most recent work, lead by Rustin Lovewell, a PhD student in the Berwin lab, for which we provided some bacterial strains, they show that the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway is required for this motility-induced engulfment.