Kull Lab
Principal Investigator: Fredrick Jon Kull
Institution: Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
Primary Subfield: Immunology
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Virulence gene regulators of enteric bacterial pathogens: Determining the structural and functional mechanisms of small molecule and polypeptide inhibitors Summary: The AraC/XylS family is one of the largest families of bacterial transcription factors with ~16K members distributed amongst 81% of sequenced bacterial species. Family members are present in pathogenic genera including Acinetobacter, Escherichia, Klebsiella, Legionella, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia. The regulon of any given family member typically encompasses one of three categories: metabolism, stress response, or pathogenesis. Those involved in metabolism or stress response often have well characterized ligands. For example, AraC regulates the expression of genes involved in arabinose metabolism and its activity is modulated by arabinose. In contrast, small molecule ligands have not been identified for the vast majority of virulence regulators within the AraC family (hereafter referred to as AraC-VRs), which has led to the commonly held belief that the AraC-VR branch of the family has lost the ability to respond to ligands. Published work by us and others –and our preliminary studies– sugges…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01AI168157-04: Virulence gene regulators of enteric bacterial pathogens: Determining the structural and functional mechanisms of small molecule and polypeptide inhibitors (2026)
- 5R01AI168157-03: Virulence gene regulators of enteric bacterial pathogens: Determining the structural and functional mechanisms of small molecule and polypeptide inhibitors (2025)
- 5R01AI168157-02: Virulence gene regulators of enteric bacterial pathogens: Determining the structural and functional mechanisms of small molecule and polypeptide inhibitors (2024)
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