Iverson Lab provides new insights on chemotaxis

Posted by daviskd2 on Friday, May 3, 2024 in News.

The lab of Tina Iverson, Louise B. McGavock Professor and professor of pharmacology, in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco; Stanford University; and The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have published new work in Nature Microbiology, providing new insights on chemotaxis.

Chemotaxis is a key characteristic shared by all infectious bacteria. It’s a versatile process that allows bacteria to swim toward energy-rich molecules, find preferred niches for infection, avoid harmful species, change speeds and fully stop to form biofilms. Chemotaxis is also essential for virulence in animals and a potential target for new therapeutics. But first, the process itself needs to be better understood.

The Iverson lab is now working to identify how an expanded range of different protein partners bind to the flagellar motor during chemotaxis, and hope that this will lead to ways to disrupt chemotaxis during infection.

Read the full article on the Basic Sciences website.