Marta Perego, PhD

Regulation of bacterial signal transduction in development and pathogenesis. Research in our laboratory focuses on understanding the mechanisms controlling signal transduction systems involved in bacterial development and in pathogenesis of Gram-positive microorganisms with a special emphasis on Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus anthracis and Clostridium difficile. Genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and structural biology are used to understand the mechanism of action of regulators, their targets and the physiological events that activate them, particularly the role of the environment and metabolism on the activation of bacterial virulence factors. Gram-positive microorganisms are among the organisms that pose great threats to human health due to the increasing rate of antibiotic resistance in the United States and around the world. Our laboratory focuses on understanding the mechanisms of bacterial infection, with the aim of finding new targets for antimicrobial intervention, and for developing tools in high-throughput screening of the extensive chemical and natural product libraries available in our Institute.