|
|
|
Professor Bill Costerton, the world renowned developer of the biofilm
paradigm (Scientific American 1978), has joined the WPAHS system with joint
appointments as Director, Microbial Research, Department of Orthopaedics,
Allegheny General Hospital, and Director, Biofilm Research, Center for
Genomic Sciences, Allegheny-Singer Research Institute. Dr. Costerton is a
Fellow of the Canadian Royal Society, and the recipient of numerous
international awards in microbiology and teaching including ASM's Procter and
Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Prior to Dr.
Costerton's joining WPAHS, he was the Director of Biofilm Research at the
University of Southern California from 2004-2008, and Center Director of the
Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University from 1992-2004
where he ran a highly successful NSF-sponsored engineering institute. Dr.
Costerton is one of ISI's most highly cited authors and has over 600
peer-reviewed publications. An extremely popular speaker, Dr. Costerton gives
dozen's of keynote addresses around the world every year on topics ranging
from medical microbiology, to microbial ecology, to industrial microbiology
and bioremediation.
New Funding Source at CGS
Dr. Ehrlich heads a team of CGS researchers including Drs. Hu and Hiller,
and Ms. Bennett that are working on a DARPA-funded project to try to
quantitate bacterial evolutionary rates in
vivo during the infectious process.
New Research Initiatives at CGS
Orthopedic Biofilm Infections: Dr. J. William Costerton is heading
a greatly expanded collaboration between the Department of Orthopedics and
the Center for Genomic Sciences to study antibacterial biofilm strategies for
implantable orthopaedic devices including arthroplasties and bone fixation
devices. Joining Dr. Costerton are Drs. Conti, Mateo, Sotereanos, Altman, and
Altman from Orthopedics; and Drs. Kathju, Stoodley, Ehrlich and Post from
CGS. This projects includes evaluation of the new Ibis/Abbott T-5000
Universal Biosensor Technology to provide rapid, specific, and quantitative
information regarding the infectious process. To aid in this endeavor, CGS
has hired Ms. Rachael Melton-Kreft from Ibis where she served as the chief
developmental technologist for all of the microbial assays that are run on
the T-5000.
Vaginal Microbiome Studies: Drs. Ehrlich, Ahmed, Hu, Hiller, and
Costerton have begun a collaboration with the
vaginal microbiology group at Magee and Women's Hospital headed by Dr. Sharon
Hillier to characterize the vaginal and uterine microbiomes in health and
disease. To initiate this collaboration, the Magee team identified a dozen
phenotypically characterized strains of Gardnerella
vaginalis that represented as broad a cross section of this important
bacterial species as possible and the CGS has begun sequencing these strains
using the newest 454 Titanium technology. Preliminary results from the first
4 sequenced strain demonstrate a huge improvement in
assembly for the Titanium platform compared to the FLX platform. An NIH grant headed by Dr. Hillier has
been submitted to support this work.
Aqueous-Tar Microbiome Studies: CGS Scientists led by Executive
Director, Dr. Garth Ehrlich, have established a second environmental
microbiology initiative. This new collaborative project includes Drs. Baum and
Webster of the Oak Crest and House Ear Institutes, respectively, both in Los Angeles, CA.
The primary goal of this project is to fully characterize the unique
microbiology of the Sisar Creek Tar microbiome on Sulphur Mountain, CA
with the idea of identifying unique organisms and metabolic pathways from
this natural petroleum seep for use in detoxifying petroleum spills. An NSF
grant headed by Dr. Baum has been submitted to pursue this work.
Back
|