Twarting antibiotic resistance in Pseudmonas aeruginosa
Read Pukkila-Worley, MD talks about the research in his laboratory
The major goal of the Pukkila-Worley laboratory is to characterize mechanisms of immune homeostasis in intestinal epithelial cells. We aim to use these discoveries to identify innate immune pathways that can be exploited to develop new therapies, which can modulate host immune activity.
Our laboratory uses C. elegans as a discovery platform to define evolutionarily ancient mechanisms of pathogen sensing and immune activation. On the right, a photograph of a nematode that has been infected with the important human bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aerginosa, is shown. Individual bacteria can be visualized within the markedly distended intestinal lumen of the animals. Also shown is a socially-distanced celebration for Kyle Foster, who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis in September 2020.
- 3/7/23: Nice write-up about our paper in UMass Chan NEWS
- 2/17/23: Nick and Sammy published a paper in Immunity!!
- 7/14/22: Nick won a Poster Award at #MAPS2022 Meeting
- 6/30/22: Nick defended his thesis!
- 6/1/22: Read got tenure.
- 3/10/22: R01 #1 renewal success. Score in the 2nd percentile!!
- 1/31/22: Nick's paper featured on the cover of eLife!!
- 8/18/21: Nick featured on UMass Chan News
- 6/28/21: OMG! A score in the 1st percentile on a R01 #2!!
- 6/3/21: Nick won the Dean's Award for Outstanding Research!
- 5/12/21: Sarah sucessfully defended her thesis!
- 5/6/21: Outstanding Medical Educator Award to Read
- 4/16/21: More funding! The Riccio Fund for Neuroscience!
- 3/4/21: Fundable score on an R21 at NIAID. Wahoo!
- 1/12/21: Awesome write-up about Nick and Sammy!
- 12/8/20: Sammy awarded an F30 NRSA fellowship (#2 for lab!)
- 10/8/20: Sarah's review was published in PLOS Pathogens
- 9/11/20: Kyle defended his Ph.D. thesis!!
- 4/7/20: Kyle published his thesis work in Cell Reports!!
- 4/6/20: We got a Notice of Allowance for a U.S. Patent.
Worcester, known as the “Heart of the Commonwealth” is located in Central Massachusetts
