LEGIONELLA PNEUMOPHILA VIRULENCE FACTORS DEFINED IN VIVO

候选人现为香港大学病理系驻院医生。 马萨诸塞州综合医院拥有强大的研究和临床 对细菌病原体感兴趣。他在国立大学工作了两年 卫生学院学习细菌遗传学，并在选修时间 今年，正在研究李斯特菌和沙门氏菌的发病机制 怀特黑德研究所。候选人的职业发展计划将是 在拉尔夫·伊斯伯格博士的指导下，在分子生物学和 塔夫茨大学医学院微生物学系。这 科室有较强的微生物致病群，有广泛的 与新英格兰传染病部门的互动 医疗中心。候选人的直接职业目标是获得 独立研究病原体与宿主相互作用所需的技能。 因此，在他的职业发展计划期间，他将参加课程学习 扩大他对细菌致病机理及相关学科的认识 细胞生物学和免疫学。在研究项目中，他将研究 引起严重肺炎的嗜肺莱克氏菌毒力机制 肺炎和病原体存活并在体内复制的模型 吞噬细胞的空泡。一种动物模型将被用来鉴定毒力 在感染过程中未能存活的突变体。化验分析 感染期间的宿主免疫反应和细菌存活将是 用于快速分类毒力突变株并计划进一步的实验 明确毒力基因功能。候选人的长期职业目标 是成为独立的细菌发病机制研究人员联合 在一个学术病理学系工作。

The candidate is presently a resident in the Pathology Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has a strong research and clinical interest in bacterial pathogens. He spent two years at the National Institutes of Health learning bacterial genetics, and in elective time this year, is studying Listeria and Salmonella pathogenesis at the Whitehead Institute. The candidate's career development plan will be under the mentorship of Ralph Isberg, Ph.D., in the Molecular Biology and Microbiology Department at Tufts University School of Medicine. This department has a strong microbial pathogenesis group and has extensive interactions with the Infectious Disease Department at New England Medical Center. The candidate's immediate career goal is to acquire skills necessary for independent study of pathogen host interactions. During his career development plan, he will, therefore, take course work to expand his knowledge of bacterial pathogenesis and related disciplines of cell biology and immunology. In the research project, he will study virulence mechanisms of Leqionella pneumophila, a cause of severe pneumonia and a model for pathogens that survive and replicate inside phagocytic vacuoles. An animal model will be used to identify virulence mutants that fail to survive during the course of infection. Assays of the host immune response and bacterial survival during infection will be used to rapidly categorize virulence mutants and plan further experiments to define virulence gene function. The candidate's long term career goal is to become an independent bacterial pathogenesis researcher associated with an academic pathology department.