Dr. Jennifer Ann Philips, MD

The Philips lab is interested in how mycobacteria survive in macrophages. One third of the world population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), and it causes 2-3 million deaths yearly. The enormous worldwide burden of disease underscores the proficiency by which M.tb is able to evade eradication by the host, subverting innate and adaptive defenses. M.tb targets evolutionarily conserved molecules to survive within macrophages, cells that normally eradicate bacteria. Using RNAi, we have employed genome-wide, high throughput strategies to identify host factors that influence the outcome of infection in both model systems and mammalian macrophages. This work lead to the identification of numerous host cell factors that alter infection, and one goal of the lab is to characterize the role of such factors during infection. For example, we found that endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery plays a role in mycobacterial phagosome maturation in …addition to its known functions in receptor trafficking and viral budding. Ongoing work involves elucidating the mechanism by which the ESCRT machinery restricts bacterial growth, as well as evaluating whether Mycobacterium tuberculosis targets ESCRT activity in order to promote survival within macrophages. In the future, we will combine such functional genomics approaches with systems-based strategies to identify molecular interactions between the bacterial secretome and host cell targets. Insight into M.tb-host interactions is sure to broaden our understanding of bacterial pathogenesis as well as eukaryotic cell biology and may ultimately translate into effective therapeutics more quickly than traditional strategies targeting bacterial factors.

Post-doctoral Positions Available: interested individuals should contact [email protected]