Corrella Detweiler - Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, 1998
How do microbes persist for years within otherwise healthy hosts? We are interested in identifying and understanding molecular mechanisms that pathogens use to establish and maintain chronic infections. The lab focuses on a model of bacterial chronic disease, Salmonella enterica infection of mice. Salmonellae cause natural systemic infections of mice. Ingested bacteria traverse the gastrointestinal tract lining to gain access to the lymphatic system. Salmonellae establish chronic infection in professional phagocytes, specifically macrophages, in the lymph nodes, spleen, liver, and bone marrow. Our research aims at understanding the regulation of bacterial signaling pathways important for host infection, the function of the downstream genes, and the nature of the macrophages in which the bacteria reside. We use a combination of bacterial genetics and biochemistry, DNA microarrays, tissue culture, microscopy, and mouse infection models to address these questions.
Karimpour-Fard A, Detweiler CS, Erickson KD, Hunter L, Gill RT, "Cross-species cluster co-conservation: a new method for generating protein interaction networks." Genome Biology 8 (2007)
Erickson KD, Detweiler CS., "The Rcs phosphorelay system is specific to enteric pathogens/commensals and activates ydeI, a gene important for persistent Salmonella infection of mice." Molecular Microbiology 62 (2006): 883-94
Chan K, Baker S, Kim CC, Detweiler CS, Dougan G, Falkow S, "Genomic comparison of Salmonella enterica serovars and Salmonella bongori by use of an S. enterica serovar typhimurium DNA microarray." Journal of bacteriology 185 (2003): 553-63
De Keersmaecker SC, Marchal K, Verhoeven TL, Engelen K, Vanderleyden J, Detweiler CS, "Microarray analysis and motif detection reveal new targets of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium HilA regulatory protein, including hilA itself." Journal of Bacteriology 187: 4381-91
