Scientific Seminar

Survival Strategies of a Versatile Bacterial Pathogen within Diverse Host Environments

Matthew A. Mulvey

University of Utah, USA

My laboratory is working to define mechanisms by which pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli colonize diverse host niches, persist, and spread in the face of numerous environmental stresses, innate and adaptive host defenses, aggressive competition with other microbes, and exposure to antibiotics. We are especially interested in understanding how intraspecies genetic diversity and bacterial adaptive responses impact host-microbe interactions and the manifestation of variable disease phenotypes. Much of our work is focused on Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC), which are the leading causes of urinary tract and bloodstream infections. We have also recently initiated studies to define the pathogenic and survival mechanisms of diarrheagenic strains of E. coli, which are especially problematic and often lethal for children in developing countries. Our ongoing work indicates that even closely related bacterial strains can vary markedly in their ability to cause disease, dependent in part on host and environmental cues and the specific gene sets carried by individual microbes. To understand how environmental and evolutionary forces shape host-pathogen interactions, my lab employs a variety of experimental approaches and disciplines, including microbiology, microscopy, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, genetics, and genomics, as well as cell culture, mouse, and zebrafish models of localized and systemic infections.