Anne-Marie Krachler
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Some gut bacteria need only a handful of cells to make a person sick, and they seem to "know" when they have arrived inside a host. Work here centers on enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), a foodborne and waterborne bacterium that causes bloody diarrhea and can lead to kidney failure, and asks two linked questions: what happens to the bacterium as it passes through a gut that makes the next infection easier, and how does it sense the physical forces of the intestine to switch on its weapons.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
enterohemorrhagic E. coli
Shiga toxin
hemolytic uremic syndrome
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Test whether host fecal proteins bound to the EHEC surface, including serpins such as alpha-1 antitrypsin and serpinE2, raise infectivity, by adding individual and combined proteins in controlled exposure and challenge experiments in zebrafish larvae.
- Determine how fecal proteins stick to the bacterial envelope: identify the bacterial surface factors that mediate binding and map the contact interfaces, testing whether host serpins pair with surface-displayed SPATE protein-cutting enzymes.
- Define the mechanism by which mechanical force induces Shiga toxin and its carrier phage in EHEC, building on the finding that the regulator GrlA leaves the inner membrane under shear force and activates the LEE master regulator Ler.
- Characterize Shiga toxin 2 induction inside a living host and measure its effect on gastrointestinal motility, following the observation that the toxin stimulates the enteric nervous system and speeds gut transit.
- Establish what role Shiga toxin plays when EHEC competes with the endogenous gut microbiota, testing whether toxin production helps displace resident bacteria during colonization.
More about the research
Both projects treat the host gut not as a passive container but as an environment that actively reshapes how dangerous the microbe is.
Why it matters
EHEC causes severe foodborne illness at doses of fewer than 100 organisms, and its complications include hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening kidney condition. Identifying how host fecal proteins coat the bacterium and how physical force triggers Shiga toxin could point to ways to interrupt transmission or block toxin production, rather than relying on antibiotics, which are problematic in this infection.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Emory University, GA·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine the distinct roles of the two genetically separate ethanolamine utilization (eut) gene clusters of Klebsiella pneumoniae in using ethanolamine, a membrane and diet byproduct, as a nutrient in the mouse gut.
Sarah E. F. D'Orazio
University of Kentucky, KY·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether the route neurotropic Listeria monocytogenes use to cross the gut lining, or the inflammation they provoke, concentrates them in nerve bundles of the intestinal submucosa or in vagal nerve endings near gut lymphoid cryptopatches.
Leigh Knodler
University of Vermont, VT·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether nine genes in the 40-kilobase type III secretion gene cluster on the Providencia alcalifaciens plasmid drive invasion of host cells, combining computational prediction, in vitro biochemistry and infection of cultured non-phagocytic cells.
The school
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: 25 labs on PI Pages, $419M a year on research, 340 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
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