Currently, my major research interest is the pathogenesis of
Yersinia pestis,
the etiological agent of plague. Although plague is not a public heath
problem in most parts of the world, its potential for contagion, the
lack of an effective vaccine, and the recent emergence of multiple
antibiotic resistance strains place this organism squarely at the top of
the United States' select agent list as a potential candidate for
bioterrorism use. The long-term goal of my research is to elucidate the
molecular mechanisms that underlie the nature of the acute bacterial
infectious process caused by Y. pestis.
The identification of the environmental signals that the bacteria
encounter in the host cells and the potential virulence genes regulated
by those signals will lead to better understanding of the process of
cross-talk between pathogen and its host during the infection. The
unraveling of the Y. pestis
virulence network will allow us to determine novel targets for therapeutics beyond antibiotics, including the generation of new vaccines and the development of robust diagnostic assays.
Search PubMed for Dr. Motin's publications.