News
March 6, 2024
It's UMD Giving Day. Please consider making a donation to the Department of Veterinary Medicine to support our work!
December 18, 2023
Thank you AGNR for awarding a MAES research grant to our lab for the project, “Mechanistic analysis of a novel antimicrobial pore-forming peptide” . We hope to use this seed money to obtain external support for continuing our research!
Research
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) represents a significant One-Health challenge, capable of spreading between and infecting both animals and humans. Our lab's research is focuses on understanding the physiology of MRSA to reveal potential targets for new drug development. Furthermore, we are exploring the mechanism of a new pore-forming antimicrobial peptide class that is active against MRSA and other Gram-positive pathogens.
Antimicrobial Peptide Biosynthesis
Coming soon!
Antimicrobial Peptide Mechanism
Coming soon!
People
Sumana Bhowmick - Postdoctoral fellow
Sumana Bhowmick is a postdoctoral fellow and is working to develop new genetic approaches to uncover MRSA physiology and virulence pathways.
Ama Antwi - MOCB
Ama is a graduate student using biochemical approaches to understand new AMP mechanisms that can be used to develop improved AMPs.
Fauzia Nur - CBSC
Fauzia is graduate student who is interested in understanding how AMPs are produced.
Selected Publications
- Seth W. Dickey, Dylan J. Burgin, Steven Huang, David Maguire, and Michael Otto. Two transporters cooperate to secrete amphipathic peptides from the cytoplasmic and membranous milieus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2023 Feb 21;120(8):e2211689120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2211689120. Epub 2023 Feb 14. PMID: 36787359; PMCID: PMC9974410.
- Natalie Zeytuni*, Seth W. Dickey*, Jinhong Hu, H.T. Chou, Liam J. Worrall, J. Andrew N. Alexander, Michael L. Carlson, Michael Nosella, Franck Duong, Z. Yu, Michael Otto, and Natalie C. J. Strynadka, Structural insight into the Staphylococcus aureus ATP-driven exporter of virulent peptide toxins. Sci Adv. 2020;6(40). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abb8219. PubMed PMID: 32998902; PMCID: PMC7527219. *Authors contributed equally
- Seth W. Dickey, Gordon Y. C. Cheung, and Michael Otto, (2017). Different drugs for bad bugs: antivirulence strategies in the age of antibiotic resistance. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 16(7):457-471. doi: 10.1038/nrd.2017.23. PubMed PMID: 28337021.
Complete bibliography:
