Please send comments, suggestions, or questions to smaloy@sciences.sdsu.edu
Throughout recorded history microbial pathogens have been a major cause of human disease and mortality. However, with the advent of effective antibiotics it seemed like the war on microbes had been won. Hence, for several decades health-related research shifted to topics like cancer, heart disease, and genetic diseases. While research in microbial pathogenesis slowed, the microbes demonstrated the efficacy of evolution. Microbial resistance to antibiotics developed faster than new antibiotics could be made available, and the resistance spread throughout the microbial world. The global expansion of food distribution networks has increased the incidence of common microbial pathogens. Simultaneously, emerging microbial pathogens filled new ecological niches, such as indwelling medical devices that provide a surface for biofilms and the growing population of patients who are immunocompromised due to primary infections such as HIV or due to therapies for chronic diseases. Furthermore, recent discoveries have demonstrated that some diseases (e.g. ulcers) previously believed to be caused by a genetic predisposition or environmental conditions are actually caused by microbes. This microbial offensive has summoned a renewed counter-attack on microbial pathogens that has intensified during the last several years. Meanwhile a variety of new tools have become available that make it possible to dissect the molecular basis of pathogenesis both from the microbial and host perspectives. Recently the complete DNA sequence of bacterial pathogens has provided valuable insights into how microbial pathogens evolve and the extent of gene transfer between pathogens. These advances have revealed new ways to control infection, including the identification of novel targets for antimicrobials and novel approaches for vaccine development. Nevertheless, many more questions remain unanswered and many pathogens are still poorly understood. The threat of bioterrorism has further accentuated this problem.
Understanding bacterial pathogenesis demands understanding the host response as well as the pathogen itself. Both of these perspectives provide potential strategies for solving important clinical problems. To elucidate these distinct aspects of microbial pathogenesis requires an interdisciplinary approach, integrating the fields of microbiology, eukaryotic cell biology, immunology, and genomics.
BIOL 584 is an upper division course that will focus on mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis, the host response to microbial pathogens, and the scientific approaches that are used to understand microbial pathogenesis. How do microbes adhere to host cells? How do environmental cues direct the response of microbial pathogens? How do microbial pathogens modulate host cells to expedite virulence? How do host cells respond to microbial pathogens? How does the host immune system react to microbial pathogens? What does genomics tells us about how microbial pathogens evolve? How do emerging pathogens take advantage of new ecological niches? How can microbial pathogens be thwarted? Although there are numerous microbial pathogens, the answers to these questions indicate that many pathogens use similar approaches to solve common problems.
Many recent developments have expanded our understanding of microbial pathogenesis and the host response to infection. The insights have important implications for both the treatment of microbial diseases and the development of new treatments for microbial diseases. Because these issues are so pervasive, this course has relevance for students planning to work in public health related fields, students planning to work in the biotechnology industry, and students interested in research in microbiology.
Please send comments, suggestions, or questions to smaloy@sciences.sdsu.edu