Joe Dillard
@sacculus.bsky.social
Bacteriologist. We study Nesseria, Gardnerella, and all things related to peptidoglycan. Professor at UW-Madison.
Kurt-Jones et al. show that IFN-epsilon increases production of CMP-sialic acid from epithelial cells, allowing gonococci to add sialic acid to their lipooligosaccharide and become resistant to an antimicrobial peptide. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
Interferon-epsilon, an estrogen-induced type I interferon, is uniquely exploited by Neisseria gonorrhoeae via effects on sialic acid metabolism
Kurt-Jones et al. examined IFN-ε, a hormone-responsive type I IFN expressed by genital
epithelial cells, during Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) infection. They demonstrated that
mice lacking IFN-ε exhibit ...
www.cell.com
July 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Kurt-Jones et al. show that IFN-epsilon increases production of CMP-sialic acid from epithelial cells, allowing gonococci to add sialic acid to their lipooligosaccharide and become resistant to an antimicrobial peptide. www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
That headline is a little misleading. The vaccine is the meningococcal vaccine 4CMenB. It's been licensed in the US for ten years, for protecting against group B meningococcal disease. Yes, it provides some protection against gonorrhea, but it's not a new GC vaccine, something that is still needed.
May 21, 2025 at 6:29 PM
That headline is a little misleading. The vaccine is the meningococcal vaccine 4CMenB. It's been licensed in the US for ten years, for protecting against group B meningococcal disease. Yes, it provides some protection against gonorrhea, but it's not a new GC vaccine, something that is still needed.
Being geneticists, we also needed to complement. We built a complementation construct that directs introduced DNA to a region on the chromosome that is conserved among Gardnerella species. I think these tools should be useful for the whole Gardnerella community.
May 12, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Being geneticists, we also needed to complement. We built a complementation construct that directs introduced DNA to a region on the chromosome that is conserved among Gardnerella species. I think these tools should be useful for the whole Gardnerella community.
Finally, Amy made a plasmid that had mutated pheS as a counter-selectable marker. So, we were able to deliver mutation constructs to the chromosome by selecting for the plasmid to integrate and then selecting for it to resolve. The isolates could be screened to see if they kept the mutation.
May 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Finally, Amy made a plasmid that had mutated pheS as a counter-selectable marker. So, we were able to deliver mutation constructs to the chromosome by selecting for the plasmid to integrate and then selecting for it to resolve. The isolates could be screened to see if they kept the mutation.
To get DNA constructs across the actinobacterial envelope, we grew the bacteria with a cell wall-weakening agent, D-cycloserine. To protect the DNA, we needed to methylate it, and circular DNA worked better than linear. So, suicide plasmids worked.
May 12, 2025 at 4:57 PM
To get DNA constructs across the actinobacterial envelope, we grew the bacteria with a cell wall-weakening agent, D-cycloserine. To protect the DNA, we needed to methylate it, and circular DNA worked better than linear. So, suicide plasmids worked.
The oligo work was nice, but we wanted to use selectable markers to knock-out virulence and colonization genes. Amy Klimowicz tried many different methods to make electroporation work better, to protect the DNA from degradation, and then to get insertions in the chromosome.
May 12, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The oligo work was nice, but we wanted to use selectable markers to knock-out virulence and colonization genes. Amy Klimowicz tried many different methods to make electroporation work better, to protect the DNA from degradation, and then to get insertions in the chromosome.
I heard that Dr. Kim Jefferson's lab at VCU was doing oligo recombineering in Gardnerella, and she was nice enough to collaborate with us. Then Dr. Erin Garcia who was doing that work, came to post-doc with us. Erin taught us to electroporate Gardnerella with oligos.
May 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I heard that Dr. Kim Jefferson's lab at VCU was doing oligo recombineering in Gardnerella, and she was nice enough to collaborate with us. Then Dr. Erin Garcia who was doing that work, came to post-doc with us. Erin taught us to electroporate Gardnerella with oligos.
We've worked on Neisseria gonorrhoeae for decades. After an interesting session at the Neisseria meeting in Asilomar, I decided we needed to understand more about the other bacteria that gonococci interact with. Gardnerella was an obvious choice, since BV patients are more likely to get gonorrhea.
May 12, 2025 at 4:46 PM
We've worked on Neisseria gonorrhoeae for decades. After an interesting session at the Neisseria meeting in Asilomar, I decided we needed to understand more about the other bacteria that gonococci interact with. Gardnerella was an obvious choice, since BV patients are more likely to get gonorrhea.