August 15, 2014

Alicia Ballok, a recently graduate PhD student in the lab is the lead author on a recent paper in the lab studying bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMV).  In a previous study from the lab, Alicia examined the regulation of the novel P. aeruginosa virulence factor called Cif.  Cif is an epoxide hydrolase - epoxides are known mammalian signaling molecules, controlling processes like blood pressure.  Here she showed showed that an exogenous model epoxide, called epibromohydrin (EBH), which can impact the transcriptional regulation of the cif gene, can also alter the complement of proteins packaged into OMV.  We do not understand the mechanism underlying this differential packaging, but it can have functional consequences.  For example, added EBH alters the packaging of key P. aeruginosa virulence factors into the OMV, and thereby reduces that cytotoxicity of these OMV.

August 12, 2014

Gary Heussler, a PhD student in the lab, just returned from the Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phage or "Phage Meeting" in Madison, Wisconsin.  Gary presented his work on the intersection of phages, CRISPR and biofilm formation, and for the second time at this conference, was awarded one of the poster prizes.  He was one of 6 such posters recognized among the 200+ posters at the meeting.  Congratulations!

August 11, 2014

Jeff Wagner (left) a former undergraduate in the lab, a recently graduated PhD student from MIT, has his graduate work featured on the MIT homepage.  Jeff has developed methods to use CRISPR to knockout genes in Malaria.  He got his start in CRISPR and phage biology during his time as an undergraduate and technician in my lab, where he published his first paper.

August 01, 2014

Microbiome-mania!  We have had two recent papers that focus on the role of the microbiome and disease. 

In a collaborative effort with Jim Gorham, his PhD student Stela Celaj, and Tom Hampton (left), all here at Dartmouth, plus our collaborators Mitch Sogin and Hilary Morrison at the MBL, we reported a role for the gut microflora in enhancing Fas-mediated acute liver injury. This work is highlighted on the journal website.

In a second report, led by Tom Hampton and myself, and in collaboration with Garry Cutting  at Johns Hopkins and Deanna Green at Duke, we showed that the microbiota in the airway of young CF patients can be altered due to environment, but it is unlikely that the airway microflora of adults is susceptible to such perturbation.  These data suggest that we can push the airway microbial communities to a more healthy state, thus intervention early is key.