The trial lecture is: "Protein secretion systems mediating bacterial antagonism".
Time and place: April.29, 2022 10:15 AM, Zoom and Nucleus, Bikuben, The Kristine Bonnevie building
The events will also be live streamed using Zoom. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the events.
The events opens for participation just before they start, and closes for new participants approximately 15 minutes after it has begun.
Main research findings
Bacterial infections and in connection to that antibiotic resistance poses a major health threat to society. It is therefore important to understand how pathogenic bacteria interact with the host. During my PhD, I worked with the pathogenic bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica which causes a gastro-intestinal disease named Yersiniosis. On the surface of the bacterium we find a virulence protein named YadA which is crucial for binding to the host. In this PhD work, I set out to find how exactly the interaction takes place on a molecular level. I found that YadA can bind to glycans, sugar molecules that are abundant the host organism. This interaction had never been described before and provides crucial, new information on how bacteria employ different classes of host molecules to infect the host. My research could in the future be used to develop new anti-infective drugs and help to combat bacterial infections.
Adjudication committee
Assistant Professor Peter van Ulsen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Associate Professor Rikke Louise Meyer, Aarhus University
Professor John Michael Koomey, University of Oslo
Chair of defence
Professor emeritus Trond Schumacher, University of Oslo
Supervisors
Professor Dirk Linke, University of Oslo
Researcher Benjamin Bardiaux, Institut Pasteur