Jose Lemos
University of Florida, FL·Microbiology & Immunology
Disease-causing bacteria must survive harsh conditions inside the human body, such as toxic metal levels or attacks from the immune system. Two projects ask how two related bacteria handle this stress and whether their survival machinery could become a target for new antimicrobial treatments.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biochemistry
- Topics
Streptococcus mutans
dental caries
tooth decay
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2028
What they work on
- Uncover the regulatory mechanisms that let Streptococcus mutans tolerate high zinc, focusing on ZccE, a zinc-exporting pump unique to this species, and its regulator ZccR, using genetic and mutational approaches.
- Determine how raising zinc above normal levels, as oral-care products can do, changes the composition and balance of the oral microbiome, comparing decay-causing and health-associated streptococci.
- Develop ZccE as an antimicrobial target for dental caries through structure-based computer-aided drug design and medicinal chemistry to find ZccE inhibitors.
- Define the roles of c-di-AMP, a bacterial signaling nucleotide, during Enterococcus faecalis infection using a mouse model of catheter-associated urinary tract infection.
- Identify the E. faecalis proteins that bind c-di-AMP and determine how the c-di-AMP and (p)ppGpp signaling networks interact to control bacterial fitness and disease.
More about the research
One project studies Streptococcus mutans, the main bacterium behind tooth decay (dental caries). The other studies Enterococcus faecalis, a leading cause of hospital infections that often resists many antibiotics.
Why it matters
Tooth decay remains widespread, and enterococci are the third most common cause of hospital-acquired infections, with multidrug-resistant strains a growing threat. Because ZccE is found only in S. mutans, inhibiting it could allow zinc-based anticaries treatments that target the decay-causing species while sparing helpful mouth bacteria. Understanding how signaling nucleotides help E. faecalis survive could guide the design of new antimicrobials. The work also clarifies how zinc-containing dental products affect the oral microbiome.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Zezhang Wen
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans, LA·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify the transcriptional and post-transcriptional factors that control expression of brpA, a gene needed for biofilm formation in Streptococcus mutans, using molecular, biochemical and bioinformatics approaches.
Ana Flores-Mireles
University of Notre Dame, IN·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how Candida albicans hyphal morphology, its filamentous virulent form, and the host immune signals MIP-1α and IL-17A modulate catheter-associated urinary tract infection in the bladder.
Ming Hu
University of Houston, TX·Pharmacology
Determine why buprenorphine, an opioid use disorder medication, reaches much higher levels in saliva than in blood, testing whether it accumulates in salivary glands, using LC-MS drug measurement in rodents.
The school
University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.
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