Rasika Harshey
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Bacteria pack a long chromosome into a tiny cell, and they can survive antibiotic doses that should kill them even without resistance genes. This work tackles both puzzles in the bacterium Escherichia coli (E.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
Biochemistry
- Topics
Escherichia coli
E. coli
Salmonella
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Use phage Mu transposition, which inserts DNA almost anywhere, to build a high-resolution map of contacts between genomic loci in E. coli and test how genome organization influences gene expression.
- Determine how the condensin complex MukBEF and the DNA-compacting protein HU-α produce a well-mixed E. coli genome and the 3D clustering of gene families such as ribosomal RNA operons.
- Dissect necrosignaling, in which AcrA released from killed cells binds TolC on living cells to boost drug efflux and protect swarming E. coli and Salmonella from antibiotics.
- Investigate how c-di-GMP made by the enzyme YfiN arrests bacterial growth to create an antibiotic-tolerant persister-like state.
More about the research
coli), at the level of single cells and of groups. One part asks how the bacterial genome is arranged in three dimensions. The other asks how bacteria tolerate antibiotics without genetic resistance, which often comes before true resistance evolves.
Why it matters
Antibiotic tolerance that does not depend on resistance genes can be a stepping stone toward full genetic resistance, a growing threat to treating infections. Understanding necrosignaling and persister-like states could inform ways to counter resistance. Because cancer cells also pump out chemotherapy drugs, and condensin complexes exist in human cells, the findings may also be relevant to drug-resistant cancers and DNA rearrangements.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jie Xiao
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biophysics
Measure how DNA supercoiling changes transcription speed and coupling between neighboring RNA polymerase molecules, using single-molecule imaging of purified RNA polymerase and DNA constructs.
Ming Hammond
University of Utah, UT·Chemistry
Develop a high-throughput assay that monitors in real time how small molecules cross into bacterial cells by passive permeation, active uptake or efflux pumping, and use it to test which structures and genes affect accumulation of dyes and clinical antibiotics.
Joanna Slusky
University of Kansas, KS·Biochemistry
Identify sequence and structural patterns shared by peptides that bind antibiotic efflux pump-like outer-membrane barrels, using the lab's databases of membrane β-barrels and the solved helix-in-barrel structure.
The school
University of Texas at Austin: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 871 research doctorates a year.
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