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Workshops & seminars

Metals, Microbes and Infectious Disease
Dr. Valeria Culotta (Johns Hopkins)


Date & time
Friday, March 17, 2017
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Speaker(s)

Dr. Valeria Culotta

Cost

This event is free

Website

Contact

Dr. Ann English

Where

Hingston Hall, wing HC
7141 Sherbrooke W.
Room HC-157

Wheel chair accessible

No

Abstract: It is estimated that nearly 40% of all enzymes require a metal ion such as zinc, copper, manganese or iron for activity and metal-protein partnerships are highly specific: a zinc enzyme will only function with zinc, and mis-metallation with copper or other metals would be deleterious. How enzyme–metal co-factor partnerships are faithfully maintained inside living cells is a long-standing question in cell physiology and is the driving force of our research program.  Using the metalloenzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) as a model, we have uncovered new pathways for trafficking of metals inside eukaryotes, and established mechanisms for the matching of SOD polypeptides with their cognate metal co-factor.    However, many of the rules for metal trafficking and homeostasis do not hold true during infection when the host and pathogen compete voraciously for trace metal nutrients.  Our current studies are directed at the host-pathogen interface using the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans as a model.  The means by which C. albicans thrives in the challenging metal ion environment of the host and uses its SOD enzymes to counteract the host attack will be subject of discussion.       

“I will be talking about metals at the host-pathogen interface.  Microbial pathogens as well as the human hosts they infect require trace metals such as copper to survive and when a microbe invades its host, the pathogen and the host battle it out for these metal micronutrients.   

Bacteria, fungal and parasitic microbes all need to acquire metal ions from their human host.  During infection, the host tries to starve these pathogenic microbes of their precious metal nutrients. When the microbe wins this battle, you have infectious disease.    

I hope the audience takes away an appreciation for just how clever successful pathogens are in terms of adapting to the harsh life inside an animal host.  How in spite of all the attacks of our immune system, a successful pathogen finds a way to acquire what its need to survive, including metal micronutrients."                                                                                                                                

- Valeria Culotta

Biography:  My research focuses on the cell biology of metal ions.  Nearly 40% of all enzymes require a metal ion such as zinc, copper, manganese or iron for activity and metal-protein partnerships are highly specific: a zinc enzyme will only function with zinc, and mis-metallation with copper or other metals would be deleterious. How enzyme–metal co-factor partnerships are faithfully maintained inside living cells is a long-standing question in cell physiology and is the driving force of the Culotta lab research program.  Using the metalloenzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) as a model, we have uncovered new pathways for trafficking of metals inside eukaryotes, defined the maturation process for assembling SOD metalloenzymes and elucidated how SOD enzymes function in oxidative stress protection and cell signaling. Historically, my laboratory used the genetically tractable bakers yeast S. cerevisiae to uncover mechanisms by which typical eukaryotes (non-pathogens) acquire metal ions and traffic these micronutrients to the active site of metalloenzymes. What we uncovered in bakers yeast was extrapolated to diverse eukaryotes from invertebrates to humans.  However, pathogens are faced with unique challenges in acquiring metal nutrients from the host and our laboratory program is now entirely devoted to understanding metals and SOD enzyme function at the host-pathogen interface.

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