SEYMOUR LEDERBERG

Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1955

Professor of Medical Science, Emeritus

Biomed Center 423

Phone: 863-2437

Email: [email protected]

  Research Summary:

Microbes and Oxidative Stress

Research Summary: Microbial cells have evolved special defensive mechanisms against the challenge of aerobic environments in which an iron-catalyzed Fenton reaction produces active forms of oxygen which are devastating to living cells. The problem for microbes is compounded by their need to recruit ionic iron from their environment for use as heme, iron-tyrosyl or iron-sulfur complexes in several proteins critical for respiration, DNA synthesis or virulence. Oxidative stress interferes with the stability or availability of these complexes. creates new demands of DNA repair and interferes with microbial growth, thereby offering opportunities for our control of microbial pathogens. Two settings are of special interest in considering oxidative stress. One of these is in a phagolysome in which microbes are subjected to an oxidative burst as part of the microbiocidal properties of a phagocyte. Some microbes are able to interfere with critical stages of this sequence, resist inactivation and thereby become parasite rather than prey. A second setting is in the oxidative disinfection of water supplies through halogens, ozone and active forms of oxygen. Resistance of viruses and microbes to oxidizing agents is an increasingly frequent health burden. A goal is to characterize the regulation of the genes involved in a microbe's adaptation to these circumstances.

Program in Biology | Biology Undergraduate Research | Biology Undergraduate Program