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Patricia Champion

Patricia Champion Professor

Molecular Genetics of Mycobacterial Pathogenesis

Contact Information:

217 Galvin Life Sciences Building
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
574-631-8375 office
574-631-6074 lab
Lab Website

Primary Research Areas:

Cellular & Molecular Biology
Genetics & Genomics
Infectious & Vector-Born Diseases
Microbiology & Immunology

Research Specialties:

Bacterial genetics
Mycobacterial Pathogenesis
Molecular Biology
Protein transport

Research Interests:

Pathogenic mycobacteria pose a sustained burden to human health. Most famously, Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the human disease, tuberculosis. However, other environmental mycobacteria also cause chronic and acute human disease. This burden of infection and disease is in part due to a lack of a viable vaccine that protects adults from pulmonary tuberculosis. To develop the vaccines and therapeutics needed to control mycobacterial disease, we need a better understanding of mycobacterial biology and the mechanisms it uses to cause disease.

A key mechanism that bacteria use to promote their survival is by the targeted transport of bacterial proteins, small molecules or nucleic acids directly into the host (secretion). In the host these molecules directly interact with and disrupt the function of cellular processes which are required for identifying and eliminating the bacteria. Targeted protein secretion is used by several successful bacterial pathogens, including M. tuberculosis, to transport proteins to distinct cellular locations. Through a better understanding of protein transport systems and the proteins they transport we will gain important insight into how mycobacteria interact with the host and cause disease. The long-term goal of my research program is to define the molecular mechanisms underlying mycobacterial pathogenesis. To address this goal, our current research is focused on identifying novel genes and mechanisms required for and regulating mycobacterial protein transport. We expect that this course of research will not only expand our understanding M. tuberculosis biology, but may also lead to the identification of novel targets for anti-virulence based therapeutics against TB.

We use an interdisciplinary approach to study mycobacterial pathogenesis. We use genetics and molecular biology to study M. tuberculosis and the non-tubercular pathogen, Mycobacterium marinum. M. marinum is an established model for several aspects of mycobacterial pathogenesis. To complement our genetic approaches, we use proteomics, transcriptomics and biochemistry.

Our current research is focused on identifying protein substrates secreted by mycobacterial Type VII secretion systems, with a specific focus on ESX-1. We are defining how ESX-1 substrates function to promote mycobacterial virulence, through the regulation of gene expression and as effector proteins within the host cell. Finally, we are interested in how modification of mycobacterial proteins promotes virulence.

Biography:

Professor, University of Notre Dame, IN 2021- Present
Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame, IN 2015-2021
Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame, IN 2009-2015
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California San Francisco, CA 2003-2009
PhD. in Molecular Biology, Princeton University, NJ 2003
B.S. in Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, PA 1998