Biological and Biomedical Science
 DMS Home  /  About DMS  /  Current Student Resources  /  Contact Us  /  Search 

Cammie Lesser

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
University Park

Bacterial Pathogenesis Laboratories
65 Landsdowne St., Room 417
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: (617) 768-8349
Fax: (617) 768-8738
Email: clesser@partners.org
Web Page: The Lesser Lab Page
2 postdoctoral fellows, 1 graduate student, 2 undergraduates

Research in our laboratory is focused on understanding how bacterial pathogens co-opt the basic machinery of eukaryotic host cells to promote infection and ultimately cause disease. In particular our work focuses on studying specialized type III secretion systems, which numerous gram-negative bacteria utilize to deliver on the order of tens of proteins into host cells. We are interested in my facets of these complex secretory systems including (1) how the bacteria recognize the tens of effector proteins that are targeted to the secretion apparatus, (2) how the proteins are delivered to the host cell and (3) how these translocated proteins subvert eukaryotic cellular biology to promote the establishment of an infection. Since many of these proteins, referred to as effectors, target cellular processes conserved among all eukaryotes we used a variety of model systems including yeast and mammalian cell culture to study the effectors. Notably, the conserved targeting of eukaryotic cellular processes often results in growth inhibition when these proteins are expressed in the model eukaryote, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  We have developed several functional genomic yeast approaches to assist us in studying these proteins including the recent development of a novel yeast-based assay for visualizing protein interactions in living cells- the Protein Interaction Platform (PIP) assay. The majority of our current work is focused on studying effectors from Shigella flexneri and Chlamydia pneumonia. 

 

 

References:

  • Schmitz, A., Morrison, M.F., Agunwamba, A. O., Nibert, M. N. and Lesser, C. Protein Interaction Platforms: yeast-based visualization of interacting proteins in living cells, Nature Methods, 2009, May 31 500-502
  • Huang, J., Lesser, C.F. and Lory, S. The essential role of the CopN protein for Chlamydia pneumoniae intracellular growth, Nature, 2008, Nov. 6:456.
  • Slagowski, N.L., Kramer, R.W., Morrison, M.F., LaBaer, J. and Lesser C.F. (2008). A functional genomic yeast screen to identify pathogenic bacterial proteins, PLoS Pathogens, 4(1):e9.
  • Kramer, R., Bremer, N., Eze, N., Morrison, M., Giddings, K, Siggers, K, Starnback, M and Lesser, C. Yeast functional genetic screens lead to identification of a role for a bacterial effector protein in innate immune regulation. PLoS Pathog, 2007, Feb 3(2): e21.