host/pathogen

Bacterial Stress Response

Summary During my postdoctoral research at Rutgers University, I focused on using computational approaches to study various facets of host and pathogen biology including: delineating the molecular mechanism underlying a newly identified stress response operon in the tubercle bacterium involving the phage-shock-proteins (psp); unraveling the evolution of bacterial stress response systems (psp) across the tree of life using protein sequence-structure-function relationships; reconstructing and analyzing the mycobacterial sigma factor regulatory network.

Variations on a theme: evolution of the phage-shock-protein system in Actinobacteria

Reconstruction and topological characterization of the sigma factor regulatory network of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Accessory sigma factors, which reprogram RNA polymerase to transcribe specific gene sets, activate bacterial adaptive responses to noxious environments. Here we reconstruct the complete sigma factor regulatory network of the human pathogen …

TB & Lipid metabolism

Summary In addition to stress-response systems on the pathogenic side, I studied some host responses to M. tuberculosis infection using computational approaches as well: characterizing the transcriptional response in infected macrophages under various small molecule perturbations using RNA-Seq analysis; understanding the dysregulation of lipid metabolism in M. tuberculosis-infected macrophages using dynamic Bayesian model and statistical analyses of heterogeneous single-cell populations. Related publications Lipid Metabolism and TB, in preparation.

Stochastic nature of adipogenic and inflammatory responses in tuberculous macrophages

The Psp system of Mycobacterium tuberculosis integrates envelope stress-sensing and envelope-preserving functions

The bacterial envelope integrates essential stress-sensing and adaptive functions; thus, envelope-preserving functions are important for survival. In Gram-negative bacteria, envelope integrity during stress is maintained by the multi-gene Psp …

Cutting edge: Vitamin D regulates lipid metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection