Bacteriology Research

anthraxsporesBacteriology 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 http://www.selectagents.gov/SelectAgentsandToxinsList.html. They are also listed on NIAID's Category A, B, and C pathogens list - https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/emerging-infectious-diseases-pathogens.

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., Orientia tsutsugamushi

Lucas Blanton, Donald Bouyer, Rong Fang, Bin Gong, Jere McBride, Juan Olano, Seva Popov, Lynn Soong, David Walker, Xuejie Yu

  • Facultatively intracellular pathogens:


Yersinia pestis
Francisella tularensis

Ashok Chopra, Vladimir Motin, Tonia Eaves-Pyles

2. Non-vector-borne bacterial agents

 

  • Bacillus anthracis

  • Burkholderia mallei and B. pseudomallei

  • Helicobacter pylori

  • Mycobacterium spp.

  • Johnny Peterson

  • Alfredo Torres and Tonia Eaves-Pyles

  • Victor Reyes

  • Janice Endsley

3. Bacterial pathogenesis

Ashok Chopra, Janice Endsley, Bin Gong, Jere McBride, Vladimir Motin, Juan Olano, Johnny Peterson, Vsevolod Popov, Alfredo Torres, David Walker

4. Protective immune mechanisms

Yingzi Cong, Rong Fang, Jere McBride, Victor Reyes, Tonyia Eaves-Pyles, Lynn Soong, David Walker

5. Antimicrobial activity

Janice Endsley, Vladimir Motin, Johnny Peterson, Alfredo Torres, Jia Zhou

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.  The Sealy Center for Molecular Medicine and the Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics provide bioinformatics, genomics, and microarray support.