Stefan Pukatzki

Biography

Associate Professor, Dept. of Medical Microbiology & Immunology

Research Interest

My laboratory studies the interaction between microbial pathogens and their hosts. To cause infections, bacteria use sophisticated strategies, some of which involve virulence factors that interact with cellular components and signaling pathways of host cells. Part of the allure of this area of research is that it not only allows us to observe a cat-and-mouse game of attack and response over evolutionary time, but it also permits us to identify novel drug targets for alternative therapies. A number of host-pathogen interactions must have evolved in environmental reservoirs where bacteria and eukaryotic predators occupy the same niche. As a consequence, pathogens may apply some of the strategies that they acquired in the environment when exposed to humans. With this concept in mind, we have pioneered the use of the environmental amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum as a genetically accessible host model to discover novel bacterial virulence mechanisms. This approach has lead to the identification of the type VI protein secretion pathway in Vibrio cholerae – the causative agent of cholera. The type VI system confers cytotoxicity not only toward amoebae, but also mammalian macrophages, indicating that the host targets are evolutionarily conserved.