Maria Lara-Tejero
Yale University, CT·Microbiology & Immunology
Many disease-causing bacteria, including Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia and some E. coli, infect people by injecting their own proteins directly into human cells.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
Biophysics
- Topics
type III secretion system
injectisome
sorting platform
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2029
What they work on
- Determine the structure of the Salmonella type III secretion sorting platform, the part of the injectisome inside the bacterium, using cryo-EM and cryo-electron tomography.
- Define how the sorting platform recognizes, selects and orders the client proteins it exports, using bacterial genetics and biochemistry.
- Examine how the sorting platform powers secretion and works with the envelope-spanning needle complex, using super-resolution microscopy together with genetic and biochemical approaches.
More about the research
These proteins rewire the host cell for the microbe's benefit. The injection is done by a molecular machine called the type III secretion system (T3SS). The machine is essential for these bacteria to cause disease, and it is similar across many species. Learning how it works could therefore point to treatments that act against many infections at once.
Why it matters
The T3SS is required for disease by many pathogens, including Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Chlamydia and Bordetella pertussis, the cause of whooping cough. Understanding how its sorting platform works could provide a basis for broadly active anti-infective strategies that disarm many of these bacteria.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jorge E Galan
Yale University, CT·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how short N-terminal secretion signals and dedicated chaperones direct client proteins to the type III secretion injectisome, the syringe-like machine Salmonella uses to inject proteins into host cells.
Jun Liu
Yale University, CT·Microbiology & Immunology
Dissect how the spoke-ring-cage protein network of the Helicobacter pylori sheathed flagellum assembles and enables optimal motility, using cryo-electron tomography with genetic and biochemical approaches.
Willy Wriggers
Old Dominion University, VA·Biophysics
Develop measures of how well an atomic model fits local regions of a cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) density map, and rate maps against reliable reference structures.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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