Vanessa Sperandio, Ph.D.

Research

Research in the Sperandio laboratory is directed toward understanding how bacteria recognize the host, and how we can exploit this knowledge to interface with bacterial infections. My laboratory reported that bacterial pathogens, such as enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), Salmonella typhimurium, Francisella tularensis, typical of the “super bugs,” exploit cell-to-cell signaling between the microbial flora and the host as a means to gage and recognize the host environment. This inter-kingdom signaling is predicated upon hormonal communication, and utilizes the host epinephrine and/or norepinephrine (NE) stress hormones and a bacterial aromatic hormone-like signal names autoinducer-3 (AI-3).