Complications of gonorrhea in women include endometritis, salpingitis and pelvic inflammatory disease, which result in billions of dollars in excess health care costs each year in the United States, and can lead to sterility, ectopic pregnancy and death.
Survivors frequently have lifelong neurologic problems.
We understand only very little about gonococcal and meningococcal pathogenesis. In addition, there is no vaccine against gonorrhea or Group B meningococcal disease, a major cause of meningococcal disease in the USA and the world. The goal of our research is to better understand meningococcal and gonococcal disease. During infection, gc and mgc settle on mucosal surfaces and enter epithelial or endothelial cells where they may be protected from humoral and cellular host defenses. As disease progresses, the bacteria must avoid being engulfed and killed by neutrophils, and avoid being killed by serum as they traverse the blood stream.