Grant: CAG/CCFC/CIHR Summer Studentship for Research in Gastroenterology

Harmless strains of E. coli colonize the human intestinal tract hours after birth and are part of our normal intestinal flora. However, pathogenic E. coli strains, such as enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) E. coli, have evolved mechanisms to induce serious disease in humans and are a widespread and an increasingly important public health issue. EPEC is a diarrheal pathogen that kills several hundred thousand children a year in developing countries, while EHEC is more prevalent in developed countries, and causes diarrheal disease with potentially fatal complications. We have identified a bacterial protein, NleA, that is present in EPEC and EHEC but absent from harmless E. coli. Furthermore, deletion of this protein in disease-causing bacteria greatly reduces their capacity to cause disease. NleA interacts with and inhibits the function of a host intestinal protein, and the project proposed is aimed at better understanding this interaction in order to gain insight into its role in disease.