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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Safety And Efficacy Of Silver-Coated Biomaterials In Vivo, Megan Klem, Darien L. Seidman, Rahyan Mahmoud, Manuella Adu, Lei Yu, Jeffrey Hettinger, Renee M Demarest May 2022

Safety And Efficacy Of Silver-Coated Biomaterials In Vivo, Megan Klem, Darien L. Seidman, Rahyan Mahmoud, Manuella Adu, Lei Yu, Jeffrey Hettinger, Renee M Demarest

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Overtreatment and overuse of antibiotics in healthcare and agricultural settings have contributed to the selective pressure on bacterial strains to develop resistance. Resistance can develop as a result of mutations and subsequent resistance genes that allow bacteria to survive against antibiotics. Novel silver-oxide coatings were developed and were previously demonstrated to prevent adhesion of gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia Coli and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa) to the disc, but did not prevent gram-positive bacterial adherence (Streptococcus Aureus). In order to determine whether the silver-oxide coatings are bacterial static and may be preventing progression to biofilm formation, in vivo analysis of S. Aureus attached to …


The Regulation Of The Ospz And Orf-2 Promoters In The Shigella Flexneri By The Virulence Factor Virb, David Basta, Helen J. Wing Aug 2009

The Regulation Of The Ospz And Orf-2 Promoters In The Shigella Flexneri By The Virulence Factor Virb, David Basta, Helen J. Wing

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Shigella flexneri is a pathogenic bacterium that is the causative agent of shigellosis, an illness characterized by severe dysentery. Shigella carries many of its virulence genes on a large virulence plasmid and consequently this plasmid is the focus of research in the Wing lab. My research focuses on the transcriptional regulation of a newly identified gene called ospZ. This gene’s protein product is secreted outside the bacterial cell and assists in polymorphonuclear leukocyte migration, a function that is believed to enhance the virulence of Shigella. Many genes encoded by the Shigella virulence plasmid are regulated by the transcription factor VirB, …


Characterization Of The Omptin Protease, Ompt, In Escherichia Coli, Amanda Yates, Eun-Hae Kim, Helen Wing Aug 2008

Characterization Of The Omptin Protease, Ompt, In Escherichia Coli, Amanda Yates, Eun-Hae Kim, Helen Wing

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Omptins are outer membrane proteases found in gram negative bacteria that cause diseases in humans, such as pathogenic Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, Salmonella typhimurium, and Yersinia pestis. Bacterial species that express omptins cause diseases such as highly fatal plague and severe diarrhea and dysentery. The genes that encode these proteases are ompT, icsP, pgtE, and pla, respectively. These proteases are highly related in structure and share approximately 50% sequence identity. In S. flexneri, IcsP has been shown to cleave a key virulence determinant, IcsA (Egile et al., 1997). IcsA recruits host actin and allows for intracellular movement within host cells …


The Effects Of Host Physiological Conditions On The Expression Of Icsp In Shigella Flexneri, Karen Levy, Helen Wing Aug 2008

The Effects Of Host Physiological Conditions On The Expression Of Icsp In Shigella Flexneri, Karen Levy, Helen Wing

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Shigella flexneri is a gram-negative bacterium capable of causing diarrhea and dysentery known as shigellosis. It is estimated there are 167.4 million shigellosis episodes throughout the world each year causing 1.1 million deaths. Shigella invades cells in the lower intestine through an induced phagocytosis. Once in the cytoplasm, bacteria move from one cell to another using actin-based motility. The Shigella outer membrane protease IcsP regulates actin-based motility and cell-to-cell spread by cleaving the actin assembly protein IcsA from the bacterial cell surface. We hypothesize that IcsP may serve additional functions during infection. By examining which environmental signals trigger icsP expression, …