ChEBE Faculty Research
Nehal Abu-Lail, Ph.D.
Attachment of Bacteria to Epithelial Normal and Carcinoma Cells
The idea that bacterial infections might lead to cancer was born in the end of the nineteenth century and since then an overwhelming body of evidence has determined that certain types of bacteria and bacteria products are associated with human cancer initiation and progression. It is estimated that over 15% of malignancies worldwide can be attributed to bacterial infections or about 1.2 million cases per year. Despite this fact, the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria can cause, colonize, promote, or develop cancer are still unclear. This is in part due to the complexity of the interactions between the bacterium and the host cells and in part from the diversity of the isolates of the pathogenic bacteria which mutate and evolve within an individual. The lack of this knowledge has rendered scientist for long time from developing effective tools that allow for prevention, early diagnosis, and effective treatments for cancer. Motivated by the current lack of a molecular mechanism that explain the interactions between bacteria and host cells; I plan to investigate the effect of bacterial surface biopolymers on the initial attachment of bacteria to epithelial host cells at the molecular level. A direct measurement of these interactions is not only exciting and offers a complementary way to existing epidemiological data and animal studies on cancer caused by bacteria, but will hopefully bring research a step closer towards prevention of cancer caused by bacteria.
A cartoon that represents the model system of study between a microbial probe of H. Pylori 26695 and a cancer gastric epithelial cell.