Our current effort is to identify the exact structure of the ligand and to elucidate the regulation of production of this ligand at a molecular level. Another area of major current activity is the genes that are involved in the interaction of microbes with their hosts to cause disease. In this area, we are seeking the genes Mycobacterium tuberculosis uses to evade the host defenses and cause the death of several million people each year. With the emergence of multiple drug resistant tuberculosis, the need to find new targets for antimycobacterial therapy has become urgent. We use gene knock-out to identify unique mycobacterial genes that are essential for pathogenesis.
Fungal infection is another major threat to humans and plants.
We are elucidating the nature of the genes that are essential for pathogenesis and how the expression of their genes are regulated. Myocarditis induced by targeted expression of the MCP-1 gene in murine cardiac muscle. A newly identified methyl-branched chain fatty acid synthesizing enzyme from Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. J. Biol Chem. European Journal of Neuroscience.