mycobacteria

Discovery of a predominant and distinct lineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Brazilian indigenous population

After nearly a century of vaccination and six decades of drug therapy, tuberculosis (TB) kills more people annually than any other infectious disease. Substantial challenges to disease eradication remain among vulnerable and underserved populations. …

Computational evolutionary approaches

Integrating molecular evolution and comparative genomics to achieve comprehensive, multiscale characterization of bacterial proteins and genomic features.

sRNA discovery

Discovering unique pathogenic sRNA in infected hosts

Bacterial Stress Response

Studying stress response systems using molecular evolution and phylogenetics.

Reconstruction and topological characterization of the sigma factor regulatory network of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Accessory sigma factors, which reprogram RNA polymerase to transcribe specific gene sets, activate bacterial adaptive responses to noxious environments. Here we reconstruct the complete sigma factor regulatory network of the human pathogen …

Host-responses to infection

Characterizing host response to infection and host-directed interventions

The Psp system of Mycobacterium tuberculosis integrates envelope stress-sensing and envelope-preserving functions

The bacterial envelope integrates essential stress-sensing and adaptive functions; thus, envelope-preserving functions are important for survival. In Gram-negative bacteria, envelope integrity during stress is maintained by the multi-gene Psp …