Research
Research and publications
Peer-reviewed work, listed with its original sources. Each entry links to the paper itself, and each carries a plain-language note about why it mattered.
2019
Targeted laser therapy synergistically enhances efficacy of antibiotics against multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms
Kirui DK, Weber G, Talackine J, Millenbaugh NJ
Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine
Bacteria growing as a film on a surface survive antibiotic doses that would kill the same cells floating freely. This study tested whether gold nanoparticles and pulsed laser light could make those films vulnerable again, and found the combination improved antibiotic effect in the laboratory. A laboratory finding, not a treatment.
SelectedAntimicrobial resistanceBiofilms
2014
RNA thermometer controls temperature-dependent virulence factor expression in Vibrio cholerae
Weber GG, Kortmann J, Narberhaus F, Klose KE
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Cholera bacteria move from cool water into a 37°C gut. This work found that a folded piece of RNA keeps a virulence gene unreadable until it warms — a thermometer built from the message itself, needing no sensor protein at all.
SelectedBacterial pathogenesisRNA regulationVibrio choleraeBacterial virulence
2011
The complexity of ToxT-dependent transcription in Vibrio cholerae
Weber GG, Klose KE
The Indian journal of medical research
A review of how cholera bacteria decide to become dangerous. Several environmental signals feed into one regulator, and this piece sets out how that cascade fits together — useful background for anyone asking why a bacterium is harmless in water and harmful in a person.
N-terminal residues of the Vibrio cholerae virulence regulatory protein ToxT involved in dimerization and modulation by fatty acids
Childers BM, Cao X, Weber GG, Demeler B, Hart PJ, Klose KE
The Journal of Biological Chemistry
Bile and certain fatty acids — both signals that a bacterium has reached a human gut — turn the cholera toxin switch down rather than up. This paper identified the part of the regulator those signals act on, showing the switch reads its surroundings rather than simply firing.
Bacterial pathogenesisVibrio choleraeBacterial virulence
2007
Identification of residues critical for the function of the Vibrio cholerae virulence regulator ToxT by scanning alanine mutagenesis
Childers BM, Weber GG, Prouty MG, Castaneda MM, Peng F, Klose KE
Journal of Molecular Biology
Cholera bacteria only switch on their toxin machinery under the right conditions, and a protein called ToxT is the switch. This work mapped which parts of that protein the switch depends on — the groundwork for understanding how the decision to cause disease is made.
SelectedBacterial pathogenesisVibrio choleraeBacterial virulence