Kaposi’ sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) causes primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). PEL cell lines require expression of the cellular FLICE inhibitory protein (cFLIP) for survival, although KSHV encodes a viral homolog of this protein (vFLIP). Cellular and viral FLIP proteins have several functions, including, most importantly, the inhibition of pro-apoptotic caspase 8...
Caves are accessible windows into the shallow subsurface, serving as transitional ecosystems between the photosynthesis-dependent surface and the deeper subsurface. Without a source of solar energy to ultimately power carbon (C) fixation (photolithoautotrophy), cave ecosystems are either reliant on surface-derived nutrients, recovering reducing power from the microbial oxidation of redox-sensitive...
Gastrointestinal (GI) colonization by Klebsiella pneumoniae is a risk factor for subsequent infection as well as transmission to other patients. Additionally, colonization is achieved by many strain types that exhibit high diversity in genetic content. However, how K. pneumoniae achieves colonization and whether the genetic factors it uses differ by...
Bacteria represent the most abundant form of life on Earth and have evolved to successfully colonize nearly every environmental niche. In doing so, bacteria predominately form multicellular communities known as biofilms, resulting in increased resilience, persistence, and emergent behaviors. Consequently, biofilms present an attractive target for engineering and synthetic biology,...
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection elicits both protein and lipid antigen-specific T cell responses. However, the incorporation of lipid antigens into subunit vaccine strategies and formulations has been under-explored, and the properties of vaccine-induced Mtb lipid-specific memory T cells have remained elusive. Mycolic acid (MA), a major lipid component of the...
The importance of understanding indoor microbial exposure is increasingly recognized, particularly concerning the emergence of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. With the advancements of sequencing technologies, our capability of exploring indoor microbial communities has dramatically increased. However, huge challenges remain to translate sequence-based knowledge to actionable interpretations to support human health...
The importance of understanding indoor microbial exposure is increasingly recognized, particularly concerning the emergence of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. With the advancements of sequencing technologies, our capability of exploring indoor microbial communities has dramatically increased. However, huge challenges remain to translate sequence-based knowledge to actionable interpretations to support human health...
A central theme in biological anthropology is investigating how the human body responds to interactions with the surrounding environment. The microbiome—the collection of microorganisms (and their genes) that live in and on the human body— represents one such pathway that mediates the environment’s influence on human biology, physiology, and health....
The microtubule (MT) network and associated regulatory proteins play a critical role during viral infection from facilitating viral particle transport towards the nucleus upon entry to later mediating virion assembly and egress. Many of the precise mechanisms by which viruses commandeer the host MT network to propagate infection remain poorly...
To combat the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in clinical settings, it is necessary to understand which environments and conditions select for antibiotic resistance. Analysis of environments hypothesized to select for antibiotic resistance has been revolutionized by metagenomic sequencing. The metagenomic pool of DNA sequences can be probed in silico using...
