Select a year 2001 2002 2003    Select a researcher Alan G. Barbour, M.D. William Bishai, M.D., Ph.D. Martin J. Blaser, M.D. John C. Boothroyd, Ph.D. Jon Clardy, Ph.D. Peter Cresswell, Ph.D. Roy Curtiss, III, Ph.D. Ronald W. Davis, Ph.D. Jack E. Dixon, Ph.D. Stanley Falkow, Ph.D. Gerald R. Fink, Ph.D. Richard A. Flavell, Ph.D. Lee Gehrke, Ph.D. Laurie H. Glimcher, M.D. Jeffrey I Gordon, M.D. Daniel L. Hartl, Ph.D. William R. Jacobs, Jr., Ph.D. Keith A. Joiner, M.D., co-PI Karla Kirkegaard, Ph.D. Roberto G. Kolter, Ph.D. W. Ian Lipkin, M.D. Richard M. Locksley, M.D. Carl Nathan, M.D. Peter Palese, Ph.D. Pradipsinh K. Rathod, Ph.D. David A. Relman, M.D. Charles M. Rice, Ph.D. Alexander Rich, M.D. Lee W. Riley, M.D. David S. Roos, Ph.D. Abigail A. Salyers, Ph.D. Gary K. Schoolnik, M.D. Iwona Stroynowski, Ph.D. Ronald P. Taylor, Ph.D. Elisabetta Ullu, Ph.D. John Waitumbi, D.V.M., Ph.D Select a project A Gnotobiotic Zebrafish Model for Analyzing Symbiotic Host...Antiviral Effects of Interferon-Inducible Cytosolic ProteinsArming the Immune System against Pathogens with Selective ...Bacterial Pathogen Families that Function in Both the Anim...Cellular Genes and Viruses: Who Wins The War?Conditional Targeted Deletions in Plasmodium falciparum...Designing and Mining Pathogen Genome Databases: The Apicop...Development of Genetic Systems for Genetically Intractable...Development of New Genetic Tools to Identify Nutrient Upta...Ecological Influences on Pathogen Genome EvolutionEvolution of Virulence in Eukaryotic PathogensExploiting an Evolutionary Omission in Pathogenic RNA Viru...Exploring Novel Pathways of Immune Defenses Against Orally...Genomic Approach to Improved Immunogenicity of M. tuber...Genomic tools to characterize hypermutating Plasmodium fal...Investigation of Mechanisms Leading to Anemia at Low Paras...Molecular definition of the bacterial population of human ...Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Latency and Reactivation Tuberc...New Antibiotics from Environmental DNAOptimizing Immunity to Complex Pathogens In VivoPandora's Box ProjectProviding an Economic Benefit to Using a Vaccine to Enhanc...Resistance Gene Flow in the Human Colonic MicrofloraRole of Nucleotide Binding Domain-Leucine Rich Repeat Prot...Sexually Transmitted Disease Agents in the “Healthy” Human...Systematic Analysis of Positive-strand RNA Viral Transmiss...The Human Intestinal Microbiome: Community Analysis, Host ...The Molecular Ecology of Vibrio cholerae in the Gangetic D...The Natural History of Typhoid Infection in VietnamThe Role of Quorum Sensing in Fungal DiseaseTowards Broad-spectrum Antivirals: Functional Screens for ...Transmission Blocking Vaccines for TuberculosisTransmission-blocking Vaccines Against Arthropod VectorsViral Pathogenic Mechanisms Involving Z-DNA Binding Proteins Select an institution Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Columbia University Harvard Medical School Harvard School of Public Health Harvard University Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York University School of Medicine Rockefeller University Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine, VA Palo Alto Health Care System University of California - Berkeley University of California - Irvine University of California - San Diego University of California - San Francisco University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign University of Pennsylvania University of Texas Southwest Medical Center University of Virginia University of Washington Washington University Washington University School of Medicine Weill Medical College of Cornell University Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Yale University School of Medicine

Martin J. Blaser, M.D. New York University School of Medicine

It has long been appreciated that the human skin is colonized by a variety of microbes. Some of these can grow in culture whereas others can be seen but not grown. Thus, the microbes that constitute the skin “flora” have not been well-defined. Our hypothesis is that, as with other parts of the body, the bacteria that can be cultured represent only a fraction of the total population.

We plan to use molecular methods to define the organisms present in human skin. This work is facilitated by the presence of a highly conserved molecule called 16S rRNA. This molecule is central to the ability of bacterial cells to make proteins, and thus is present in all cells. A molecular technique, known as PCR (polymerase chain reaction), can be used to amplify very small amounts of 16S rRNA in a specimen, enabling its detection.

Marrying 16s rRNA technology and PCR would allow detection and identification of the bacteria normally present in skin. We plan to inventory the organisms present in several healthy individuals. We will use a bioinformatic approach to determine which species are present, and to test their distribution according to anatomical site, and whether they are host-specific. After a survey of the organisms present in healthy skin, for example, focusing on the forearm, we will begin to study specimens from patients with skin diseases.

Our hypotheses are as follows:

1. There will be a generally conserved population of bacteria in most or all people.

2. Individual differences will occur in healthy persons. Transient bacterial populations likely will be identified as well.

3. Bacterial populations in diseased skin will differ from those in normal skin, even in the same host. Such differences may be used to develop tests to specifically diagnose the presence of the organism, and thus, the disease.

4. The bacterial differences may relate to the causation of these conditions. In other words, identifying a microbe as frequently or always colonizing diseased tissue in several hosts, may be a clue as to its role as an infecting agent. Such observations could lead to new approaches to diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of skin diseases.

Contact Dr. Blaser.