Bacteriology research in the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CBEID) addresses pathogens of medical importance that cause tropical and emerging infectious diseases. Many of these bacterial pathogens have the potential to be used as biological weapons and are therefore categorized by federal law as Select Agents. They are also listed on NIAID's Category A, B, and C pathogens list.
The bacterial pathogens studied at the CBEID can be divided into vector-borne and non vector-borne. Some of the agents under study infect wild and domestic animals and are responsible for emerging human zoonoses.
| Areas of Bacterial Research | Faculty members |
| 1. Arthropod-borne bacterial agents | |
| Obligately intracellular pathogens: Rickettsia and Ehrlichia spp. |
Donald Bouyer, Rong Fang, Jere McBride, Juan Olano, Seva Popov, Sunil Thomas, Gustavo Valbuena, David Walker, Xuejie Yu |
| Facultatively intracellular pathogens: |
|
| Yersinia pestis Francisella tularensis |
Ashok Chopra, Gary Klimpel, Vladimir Motin Tonia Eaves-Pyles, Gary Klimpel |
| 2. Non-vector-borne bacterial agents | |
| Bacillus anthracis Burkholderia mallei and B. pseudomallei Helicobacter pylori Leptospira Mycobacterium spp. Streptococcus pneumoniae |
Johnny Peterson Mark Estes, Alfredo Torres Victor Reyes Gary Klimpel Janice Endsley, Mark Estes David Niesel |
| 3. Bacterial pathogenesis |
Ashok Chopra, Jere McBride, Vladimir Motin, David Niesel, Juan Olano, Johnny Peterson, Vsevolod Popov, Alfredo Torres, David Walker, Xuejie Yu |
| 4. Protective immune mechanisms |
Yingzi Cong, Mark Estes, Rong Fang, Gary Klimpel, Jere McBride, Victor Reyes, Tonia Eaves-Pyles, Gustavo Valbuena, David Walker |
| 5. Antimicrobial activity |
Samuel Baron, Janice Endsley, Mark Estes, Vladimir Motin, Gary Klimpel, Johnny Peterson, Alfredo Torres |
Many of the bacterial pathogens under study in the CBEID require biosafety level 3 containment because these infectious agents may cause serious or potentially lethal diseases as a result of exposure by the inhalation route. Facilities for research on these agents is available in the Galveston National Laboratory and the Keiller Building. Training of graduate students and fellows is supported by NIH T32 training programs and the McLaughlin endowment. Vaccine development is fostered by the UTMB Sealy Center for Vaccine Development and the NIH-funded Western Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research. The Sealy Center for Molecular Medicine and the Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics provide bioinformatics, genomics, and microarray support.