• Primary Faculty Profiles
• Adjunct Faculty Profiles
• Crane, John, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Genco, Robert, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor
• Gill, Steven, Ph.D.
• Knight, Paul, M.D. and Ph.D., Professor
• Lesse, Alan, Ph.D., Professor
• Murphy, Timothy, Ph.D., Professor
• O'Brian, Mark, Ph.D., Professor
• Rittenhouse-Olson, Kate, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Russo, Thomas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Departmental Publications
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• The Witebsky Center
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Faculty and Research

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Research Interests:

Dr. Russo’s first research focus involves certain strains of Escherichia coli that are capable of causing a variety of infections outside of the intestine in both humans and domestic animals. Billions of health care dollars, millions of work-days, and hundreds of thousands of lives are lost each year to extraintestinal infections due to E. coli. A vaccine is not presently available to prevent these infections and treatment is becoming more problematic with increasing antimicrobial resistance. Studies have focused on: 1) identification of new virulence determinants, 2) E. coli-host interactions, and 3) vaccine development.

     The second focus is on the bacterium Acinetobacter, which was best known for causing health-care associated infections until a recent series of infections reported in U.S. service members injured in Iraq/Afghanistan. Particularly disconcerting is the degree of antimicrobial resistance possessed by these strains of Acinetobacter; with some being resistant to all antimicrobials tested. Unfortunately, there are virtually no new antimicrobial agents in the pharmaceutical “pipeline”.  Therefore we have begun studies to fill that void by logically identifying novel antimicrobial targets. To accomplish this goal we are collaborating with Drs. DeTitta, Umland and Schultz from the HWI. Targets are being identified using a genetic approach combined with in vitro and in vivo studies to prioritize target selection, followed by the Thermofluor fluorescence thermal shift assay to identify ligands that bind the target proteins and conditions that promote their crystallization. Then crystallization and solution the structure of the two or three most promising candidates will be performed. Next, the crystal structure pipeline will be used to screen ligand libraries by providing high resolution descriptions of protein-ligand interactions (fragment cocktail crystallography or fragment-based lead discovery).

Relevant references:

1) Russo, TA, Wang, Z., Davidson, BA , Genagon, SA., Beanan, J, Olson, R, Holm, BA, Knight, PR III, Chess, PR, and Notter, RH.  Surfactant dysfunction and lung injury due to the E. coli virulence factor hemolysin in a rat pneumonia model. Am. J. Physiol.-Lung Cell Mol. Physiol. 2007 Mar;292(3):L632-43.
2) Russo, TA, Beanan, JM, Olson, R, Genagon, SA, MacDonald, U, Cope, JJ, Davidson BA, Johnston, B, and Johnson JR. A Killed, Genetically Engineered Derivative of a Wild-Type Extraintestinal Pathogenic E. coli strain is a Vaccine Candidate. Vaccine May 10;25(19):3859-70. Epub 2007 Feb 5
3) Nazareth, HM, Genagon, SA, and Russo, TA. Extraintestinal Pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) Survives Within Neutrophils. Infect. Immun. 2007 Jun;75(6):2776-85. Epub 2007 Feb 12
4) Russo, TA., Davidson, BA., Beanan, J., Olson, R., Holm, BA.,  Notter, RH., and Knight, PR III. Capsule and O-antigen from an extraintestinal isolate of E. coli modulate cytokine levels in rat macrophages in vitro and in a rat model of pneumonia
Exp Lung Res. 2007 33:337-356.

5) Russo, TA and Carlino-MacDonald, U. Extraintestinal pathogenic isolates of Escherichia coli do not possess active IgA1, IgA2, sIgA, or IgG proteases. FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 2008 53:65-71

6) Russo, TA, Beanan, JM, Olson R, MacDonald U, Luke, N, Gill, SR, and Campagnari, A. Rat pneumonia and soft-tissue infection models for the study of Acinetobacter baumannii biology. Infect. Immun. 2008 76:3577-86

7) Russo, TA, MacDonald, U, Beanan, JM, Olson, R, MacDonald, IJ, Sauberan, SL, Luke, NR, Schultz, LW, and Umland, TC. Penicillin binding protein 7/8 contributes to the survival of Acinetobacter baumannii in vitro and in vivo. J. Infect. Dis. 2009; 199:513-521

8) Russo, TA, Beanan, JM, Olson, R, MacDonald, U, and Cope, JJ.  Capsular polysaccharide and the O-specific antigen impede antibody binding, a potential obstacle for the successful development of an extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli vaccine. Vaccine 2009, Jan 14;27(3):388-395. Epub 2008 Nov 17