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Twarting antibiotic resistance in Pseudmonas aeruginosa
Read Pukkila-Worley, MD talks about the research in his laboratory
The major goal of the Pukkila-Worley laboratory is to characterize mechanisms of immune homeostasis in intestinal epithelial cells. We aim to use these discoveries to identify innate immune pathways that can be exploited to develop new therapies, which can modulate host immune activity.
Our laboratory uses C. elegans as a discovery platform to define evolutionarily ancient mechanisms of pathogen sensing and immune activation. On the right, a photograph of a nematode that has been infected with the important human bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aerginosa, is shown. Individual bacteria can be visualized within the markedly distended intestinal lumen of the animals. Also shown is a socially-distanced celebration for Kyle Foster, who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis in September 2020.
- 3/10/22: R01 renewal success. Score in the 2nd percentile!!
- 1/31/22: Nick's paper featured on thecover of eLife!!
- 8/18/21: Nick featured in a #studentspotlight on UMassMedNow
- 6/28/21: OMG! A score in the 1st percentile on a new R01!!
- 6/3/21: Nick won the Dean's Award for Outstanding Mid-thesis Research!
- 5/12/21: Sarah sucessfully defended her thesis!
- 5/6/21: Read won the Outstanding Foundation Medical Educator Award
- 4/16/21: More funding! The Riccio Fund for Neuroscience!
- 3/4/21: Fundable score on an R21 at NIAID. Wahoo!
- 1/12/21: Awesome write-up about Nick and Sammy! proud of them!
- 12/8/20: Sammy awarded an F30 NRSA fellowship: The lab's second!
- 10/8/20: Sarah's review was published in PLOS Pathogens
- 9/11/20: Kyle defended his Ph.D. thesis!!
- 4/7/20: Kyle published his thesis work in Cell Reports!! Such an exciting day.
- 4/6/20: We got a Notice of Allowance for a U.S. Patent on a new antihelminthic drug target
- 12/20/19: Nick, MD/PhD student, got an F30 grant funded!
- 10/22/19: Competitive renewal success! Thank you Kenneth Rainin Foundation!
Worcester, known as the “Heart of the Commonwealth” is located in Central Massachusetts
