Mark
R. O’Brian, PhD, professor of biochemistry, has
won a $1.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to
study regulation of bacterial manganese metabolism.
The study, funded through the National Institute of General
Medical Sciences, seeks to explain how bacteria sense the
status of the nutrient manganese and alter their metabolism to
accommodate nutrient availability, O’Brian explains.
“The ability of bacteria to adapt to their environment
allows them to successfully infect plants and animals, resulting
either in disease or in some benefit to the host,” he
says.
O’Brian hopes the research will illuminate
manganese’s role in cells, something researchers don't fully
understand.
“The longer term objectives are to find therapies that
cripple the adaptive machinery of pathogenic bacteria or that
improve fitness of beneficial microbes,” he says.
Previously, O’Brian received an $820,000 NIH grant to
study regulation of bacterial heme metabolism.
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