Alexander Cole
University of Central Florida, FL·Microbiology & Immunology
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that many people carry in their noses without being sick, but it is also a frequent cause of infected wounds, surgical-site infections and severe pneumonia, and drug-resistant strains keep emerging. Clinical infections nearly always match the strain a patient already carried in the nose, which makes the nose the reservoir for spread.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
- Topics
Staphylococcus aureus
nasal carriage
nasal microbiome
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Purify and identify the anti-Staphylococcus aureus proteins and polypeptides secreted by nasal Klebsiella isolates, starting from conditioned culture medium that can be prepared at large scale.
- Measure the potency of the purified proteins against diverse S. aureus strains and determine the mechanisms by which lead proteins inhibit bacterial growth and survival.
- Test how lead proteins affect nasal epithelial cells, including barrier permeability, intracellular signaling, secretion of inflammatory factors and host defense peptides, and immune cell chemotaxis.
- Assess practicality of the lead inhibitors by measuring their stability in nasal tissue, against mucosal proteases and in nasal secretions, whether S. aureus can develop resistance, and whether other common nasal bacteria are affected.
More about the research
A striking clue is that some people appear naturally resistant to carrying it, and understanding why could point to new ways to reduce carriage.
Why it matters
S. aureus is linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide each year, and nasal carriage is considered the reservoir behind those infections. Characterizing the inhibitory proteins made by bacteria found in noncarriers could support development of topical agents that strengthen nasal defenses, reducing carriage and the transmission and infections that follow, including in surgical patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Reed Stubbendieck
Oklahoma State University, OK·Microbiology & Immunology
Culture Dolosigranulum pigrum from nasal swabs and test its inhibition of multiple Staphylococcus aureus strains with co-culture plate assays under conditions mimicking the human nose.
Andrew Berti
Wayne State University, MI·Microbiology & Immunology
Engineer a universal phage propagation strain of Staphylococcus aureus expressing methylation specificity proteins so that daughter phage DNA is tagged as "self" and bypasses the restriction-modification defenses that limit phage host range.
Albert Siryaporn
University of California-Irvine, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify combinations of human histones with the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 and other membrane- or cell wall-targeting antimicrobials that produce the strongest killing and synergy against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and communities of skin bacteria in vitro.
The school
University of Central Florida: 15 labs on PI Pages, $285M a year on research, 290 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.