Tuesday, October 20, 2020
3:30pm
Shawna Reed, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences
Quinnipiac University
Host: Ken Campellone
"Coxiella and the arms race between host and pathogen…"
Summary: The bacterium Coxiella burnetii enters eukaryotic host cells uses at least 130 secreted bacterial proteins to modify the late endosome into an autolysosomal, highly fusogenic compartment, allowing massive bacterial replication while promoting host cell survival and inhibiting innate immune responses to infection. Using an insect larval model for multicellular infection, bacterial effectors which inhibit immune response, promote multicellular infection and modulate Coxiella vacuole formation were identified.
As a scientist, Dr. Reed is passionate about uncovering the molecular interactions between host cells and intracellular bacteria. She has studied Rickettsia and Listeria actin-based intracellular motility at UC Berkeley and Coxiella genetics and host interactions at Yale.
In her laboratory, she looks forward to creating research projects for undergraduates curious about intracellular pathogens, bacterial genetics, interactions with host immune sensing pathways, and how individual bacterial effector proteins might contribute to virulence by hijacking host cell functions. To learn more about Dr Reed's work, view https://mbio.asm.org/content/7/4/e01127-16.long and visit her website: https://directory.qu.edu/Profile/188042
Seminar Link: https://uconnvtc.webex.com/webappng/sites/uconnvtc/meeting/download/73b0482edc2d4296b538911b3923d6f4?siteurl=uconnvtc&MTID=mf888e1957a812a5c6b3968a2580b5f42
For more information, contact: Ciara Hanlon at ciara.hanlon@uconn.edu