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Bacterial Diseases
Introduction
General Information
Plans, Priorities and Goals
Meetings
Introduction
Bacterial disease continue to present a major threat to human health. Tuberculosis, for instance, ranks among the world's leading causes of death. Streptococcus (GBS), another bacterium, continues to be a frequent cause of life-threatening infection during the first 2 months of life. Foodborne and waterborne bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter are responsible for a recent troubling increase in diarrheal disease. Meanwhile, during the last decade, scientists have discovered new organisms such as Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium responsible for Lyme Disease, as well as new strains of many familiar bacteria, such as Escherichia coli. Such emerging bacterial diseases present a clear challenge to biomedical researchers.
The complexity of this challenge is becoming even clearer as researchers begin to appreciate the many unsuspected mechanisms that bacteria have for causing trouble to human beings. For example, gene transfer among different strains of bacteria, and even between different species of bacteria, is now understood to be a common means whereby these organisms acquire resistance to antibiotics. Basic research has also discovered that some bacteria may play a major role in certain chronic diseases not formerly associated with bacterial infection. The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, for example, has been found to cause ulcers and may contribute to stomach cancer; Guillain Barré syndrome has been associated with prior diarrheal disease caused by Campylobacter jejuni.
NIAID researchers are involved in all aspects of investigation to help solve these difficult challenges. Research in basic bacteriology includes investigating molecular structure and function, genetics, biochemical composition, and physiological and biochemical processes. Studies on these bacterial pathogens extend basic insights to identify vaccine candidate antigens and drug targets and to examine mechanisms of infection, pathogenicity, and virulence. Areas of particular interest include streptococci, pneumonia, nosocomial (hospital associated) infections, antibiotic resistance, bacterial sexually transmitted diseases, and bacterial diarrhea.
NIAID's program for antibacterial research is facilitated through its intramural labs, technology and research resources, and extramural research support, including support for many bacterial genome sequencing projects.
General Information
Fact Sheets and Brochures
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News Releases
DMID Press Releases
NIAID Newsroom
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Output from Conferences and Meetings
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Staff Presentations and Papers
Reports and Articles from NIAID
Plans, Priorities and Goals
- Opportunities and Resources
- CONCEPTS CLEARED
- PAs, RFAs, and RFPs
- RESEARCHER RESOURCES
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- Clinical Trials
- EXTRAMURAL TRIALS
- INTRAMURAL TRIALS
Federally and Privately Supported Clinical Trials: clinicaltrials.gov
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- Intramural Labs at NIAID
- Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis – Studies the molecular basis of human bacterial pathogenesis in its broadest sense. Research projects currently focus on the molecular basis of pathogen-arthropod vector interaction using pathogenic Borrelia spp.-tick and Yersinia pestis-flea as model systems; the role of high-frequency genetic and antigenic variation in the pathogenesis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections; the genetic basis of antimicrobial agent resistance, host susceptibility, and disease specificity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis; and the molecular basis of epidemic waves and human-pathogen interactions in group A Streptococcus.
- Laboratory of Host Defenses, Tuberculosis Research Section – Puts special emphasis on understanding and interpreting the genomic information encoded within Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Common themes in projects in the laboratory include; exploring the interface between chemistry and biology in this important pathogen of humans, understanding biochemical pathways and processes unique to the tubercle bacillus, exploring the biochemical basis for the interaction of the bacillus and the human host, understanding the mode of action of existing antitubercular therapies, and utilizing combinatorial chemical and genomic approaches for the development of novel antitubercular therapies.
- Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases
- Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis – Studies several bacteria that cause diseases in humans, including Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea), Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Borrelia hermsii (relapsing fever), and Yersinia pestis (plague)
Meetings
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