NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series

How to bust up a bacterial biofilm

The Bakaletz laboratory’s research focus is attempting to understand the pathogenic mechanisms operational in the highly prevalent pediatric disease, otitis media (OM) (or middle ear infection). Specifically, we are interested in elucidating how upper respiratory tract viruses predispose the middle ear to invasion by any of the three predominant bacterial pathogens of OM (nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Streptococcus pneumoniae).

Microbiome: friend and foe

Dr. Segre’s research at NHGRI explores human skin bacterial, fungal and viral communities, enabling studies of alterations associated with pediatric atopic dermatitis, primary immunodeficiency and emerging pathogens. Dr. Segre’s research also focuses on integrating whole genome sequencing of hospital pathogens to track possible nosocomial transmissions. These studies integrate DNA sequence technology, algorithm development and clinical studies to explore the diversity of microbes in and on humans in health and disease.

RNA degradation controls inflammation

Dr. Akira is a director and special appointed professor of Immunology Frontier Research Center. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Osaka University. After two years of postdoctoral working in Department of Immunology, University of California at Berkeley, he started to study on IL-6 gene regulation and signaling in the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Osaka University, and cloned transcription factors, NF-IL6(C/EBP beta) and STAT3.