Sara Abboud
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Bacterial infections of the cornea, the clear front window of the eye, can cause permanent vision loss. They are getting harder to treat because the main culprits, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, are often resistant to antibiotics.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
- Topics
cornea
ocular surface
mucins
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2031
What they work on
- Test whether the nerve sensor channels TRPV1 and TRPA1 change mucin-related gene activity in corneal and conjunctival cells, using RNA sequencing confirmed with qRT-PCR.
- Measure mucin proteins on the corneal surface directly, using mass spectrometry to identify the proteins and confocal imaging to see where they sit, to learn how TRPV1 and TRPA1 shape the ocular mucin barrier.
- Map the healthy ocular surface 'mucinome', the full set of mucins present, as a step toward explaining how TRP channels protect the cornea from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus sticking to it.
More about the research
A healthy cornea normally resists these bacteria. Part of that protection comes from mucins, large sugar-coated proteins that coat the eye surface and keep bacteria from sticking. The cornea is also the most heavily nerve-supplied tissue in the body. This project asks whether the nerves at the eye surface help control the mucin barrier.
Why it matters
Bacterial corneal infections threaten sight, cost the US an estimated $175 million a year in direct health spending, and are becoming harder to treat as antibiotic resistance spreads. Knowing how nerve channels control protective mucins could lead to mucin-based ways to prevent eye infection. Because mucin problems are also linked to dry eye disease, Sjögren's syndrome and contact lens complications, the findings may matter for those conditions too. They might also apply to infections at other mucus-lined surfaces such as the gut and airways.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jason Papin
University of Virginia, VA·Biomedical Engineering
Build computational metabolic network models of antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus in body-like environments, to predict genes and pathways that support the evolution of resistance.
Gregory Borschel
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how much corneal Schwann cells, the support cells that accompany nerve fibers, control limbal stem cell activity, using an animal model of neurotrophic keratopathy, selective cell ablation and tracking of corneal cell populations.
Madison Collins
Montana State University, MT·Microbiology & Immunology
Test the hypothesis that molecules controlled by the S. aureus SaeR/S gene regulatory system disrupt autophagy, a self-digestion process that kills trapped microbes, in human neutrophils after they swallow the bacteria.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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