LEGIONELLA PNEUMOPHILA VIRULENCE FACTORS DEFINED IN VIVO

候选人目前是病理学系的住院医师， 马萨诸塞州总医院，并具有较强的科研和临床 对细菌病原体感兴趣。 他花了两年时间在国家 卫生研究所学习细菌遗传学，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 部门具有强大的微生物致病菌群，并具有广泛的 与新英格兰传染病部门的互动 医学中心 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中，他将参加课程工作， 以扩展他对细菌致病机理和相关学科的知识 细胞生物学和免疫学。 在研究项目中，他将研究 Leqionella pneumophila的毒力机制， 肺炎和病原体在体内存活和复制的模型 吞噬泡 将使用动物模型来鉴定毒力 在感染过程中未能存活的突变体。 的测定 在感染期间宿主免疫应答和细菌存活将被 用于快速分类毒力突变体和计划进一步的实验 来定义毒力基因的功能。 候选人的长期职业目标 是成为一个独立的细菌致病机理研究人员联合 有一个学术病理学系

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.