OCRID Project Leader Awarded Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Grant
OCRID Project Leader, Dr. Marianna Patrauchan, has been awarded $125,000 from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for her proposal entitled, “A novel dual calcium and redox sensor controls virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.” Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes life threatening infections in patients with cystic fibrosis. Dr. Patrauchan has been working with calcium signaling within the center and showed that Ca2+ positively regulates several virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She also identified a Ca2+ -binding protein, EfhP, mutations in which cause multiple Ca2+ -dependent defect in Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence. Dr. Patrauchan hopes to prove that EfhP serves as a Ca2+ sensor that binds the ion and transduces this signal towards regulation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence and resistance in the host. She wishes to strengthen her preliminary data as she endeavors to secure R01 funding from the NIH.