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About BPG

The Bacterial Pathogenesis Group (BPG) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School is an interdisciplinary group of faculty interested in the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis, bacteria-mammalian cell interactions and the microbiome. The pathogenic bacteria under investigation include enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) Escherichia coli, the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis, Clostridium difficile, Haemophilus influenzae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Investigators

Click on the investigator's name to see his or her profile. Click on the department to see its home page. A recent publication for each investigator is also shown.

Jon D. Goguen PhD
Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Phone: (508) 856-2490
E-mail: jon.goguen@umassmed.edu
Function and regulation of virulence genes in the plague bacillus, Yersinia pestis

Ratner D, Orning MP, Proulx MK, Wang D, Gavrilin MA, Wewers MD, Alnemri ES, Johnson PF, Lee B, Mecsas J, Kayagaki N, Goguen JD, Lien E. 2016. The Yersinia pestis Effector YopM Inhibits Pyrin Inflammasome Activation. PLoS Pathog. 2016 Dec 2;12(12):e1006035. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006035. PMID:27911947 PubMed

Beth McCormick PhD
Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Phone: 508-856-6048
Email: Beth.McCormick@umassmed.edu
Mucosal inflammation, host: pathogen interactions, and cancer biology

Mercado-Lubo R, Zhang Y, Zhao L, Rossi K, Wu X, Zou Y, Castillo A, Leonard J, Bortell R, Greiner DL, Shultz LD, Han G, McCormick BA. 2016. A Salmonella nanoparticle mimic overcomes multidrug resistance in tumours. Nat Commun. 2016 Jul 25;7:12225. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12225. PMID:27452236 PubMed

Martin G. Marinus PhD
Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Phone: (508) 856-3330
E-mail: martin.marinus@umassmed.edu
Enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) Escherichia coli virulence factors

Carone BR, Xu T, Murphy KC, Marinus MG. 2014. High incidence of multiple antibiotic resistant cells in cultures of in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7. Mutat Res. 2014 Jan;759:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2013.11.008. PMID:24361397 PubMed

Kenan C. Murphy PhD
Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Phone: (508) 856-6042
E-mail: kenan.murphy@umassmed.edu
Structure-function studies on host and phage recombination proteins

Murphy KC. 2016. λ Recombination and Recombineering. EcoSal Plus. 2016 May;7(1). doi: 10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0011-2015. PMID:27223821 PubMed

Read Pukkila-Worley MD
Medicine, Infectious Diseases And Immunology
Phone: (508) 856-3596
E-mail: Read.Pukkila-Worley@umassmed.edu
Innate immune surveillance mechansims

Pukkila-Worley R. Surveillance Immunity: An Emerging Paradigm of Innate Defense Activation in Caenorhabditis elegans. PLoS Pathog. 2016 Sep; 12(9):e1005795. PMID: 27631629. PubMed

Christopher M. Sassetti PhD
Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Phone: (508) 856-3678
E-mail: christopher.sassetti@umassmed.edu
Pathogenesis of tuberculosis

Rock JM, Hopkins FF, Chavez A, Diallo M, Chase MR, Gerrick ER, Pritchard JR, Church GM, Rubin EJ, Sassetti CM, Schnappinger D, Fortune SM. 2017. Programmable transcriptional repression in mycobacteria using an orthogonal CRISPR interference platform. Nat Microbiol. 2017 Feb 6;2:16274. doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.274. PMID:28165460 PubMed

Doyle V. Ward PhD
Microbiology and Physiological Systems
Phone: (774) 455-3529
E-mail: Doyle.Ward@umassmed.edu

Scholz M, Ward DV, Pasolli E, Tolio T, Zolfo M, Asnicar F, Truong DT, Tett A, Morrow AL, Segata N. Strain-level microbial epidemiology and population genomics from shotgun metagenomics. Nat Methods. 2016 May; 13(5):435-8. PMID: 26999001 PubMed