Research
PET plastic degradation
With the growing problem of plastic pollution, both on land and in our oceans, we see the biodegradation of these waste products to be an important part of the solution to this global issue. For her senior thesis Morgan Vague (Reed ’18) isolated three Pseudomonas and two Bacillus spp. that degrade polyethylene terephthalate, or PET plastic, the material used for disposable water bottles. We want to gain a greater understand the biodegradation of PET by these bacteria, both biologically and chemically, to make the process more rapid. The genome sequences of the five bacteria, and evidence that they degrade PET plastic in a synergistic manner recently was published in Microbiology Resource Announcements. Morgan Vague's TED Talk describing the isolation of the bacteria has over 2 million views. This work is funded by NSF grants #1931150 and #2246498.
EPEC virulence gene regulation
Our long-term research goal is to study the molecular mechanisms of how enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) causes disease. We have two main projects focusing on EPEC virulence gene regulation. The first area of study concerns the regulation of EPEC virulence factors, and mechanisms of control by a novel protein called Ler. Funding for this set of projects has included a three-year, NIH AREA grant (2R15AI47802-03).
Recently, we have also investigated how the PerC protein confers a selective advantage to enteropathogenic E. coli at the site of infection- the small intestine, and the molecular mechanism by which this small regulatory protein controls gene expression. Funding for this project has included an award from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and an NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Award (1R21AI115193-01).
Lab Folks 2023
Research Associate: Libby Brennan
Thesis Students: Deepika Shingwekar, Henry Jacques
Independent Study: Madelyn Tarara
Summer Researchers: Deepika Shingwekar, Henry Jacques, Madelyn Tarara, Athena Hsu-Chen, and Alanna Zhang