Rebecca Barnes, first pub associated with NOSM

Rebecca Barnes is a 2nd year MSc Biology student at Lakehead University.  Her recent paper entitled "Chromosomal gfp labelling of Pseudomonas aeruginosa using a mini-Tn7 transposon: application for studies of bacteria-host interactions" has been accepted for publication in the Canadian Journal of Microbiology.  This paper has earned the distinction of being the first research publication associated with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine from either the Sudbury or Lakehead campus.

 

Supervisors: 

Dr Marina Ulanova, Medical Sciences Division, NOSM West

Dr Heidi Schraft, Biology/ABMS Department, Lakehead University

Project title: 

The role of integrin receptors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection of  human lung epithelial cells.

Rebecca's general area of study:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major pathogen involved with ventilator associated pneumonia and cystic fibrosis.  We are interested in investigating the role of integrins receptors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa adherence to and invasion of lung epithelial cells, and the cell signalling events initialized as a result of these interactions.  To study the host-pathogen interactions, we have stably genomically labelled the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAK with a green fluorescent protein gene (gfp) that allows for detection and visualization of the bacterium using fluorescence based readouts.  The importance of integrins in adherence, internalization, and inflammatory signalling initiated by PAKgfp can be measured by using various methods of inhibiting integrins and comparing the response of the epithelial cells.