Monday, November 28, at 12:10 p.m. in Todd 334
The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering are hosting a seminar presented by Dr. Viveka Vadyvaloo, Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at WSU.
Viveka Vadyvaloo received her PhD from Stellenbosch University in her native country of South Africa. She undertook postdoctoral training at University of California Los Angeles and then at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases also know as the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. In 2010 she joined the faculty of the Paul G Allen School for Global Animal Health where she is an assistant professor.
Transmission of the bubonic plague – a biofilm phenomenon
The bubonic plague is a flea-borne wild rodent disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis. Plague is transmitted to a host once Y. pestis is deposited into the host skin through the bite of an infected flea. The biological mechanism of transmission of Y. pestis from fleas is referred to as the foregut-blockage regurgitation model of transmission. Central to this mechanism is the ability of Y. pestis to form a thick and coherent biofilm during its adaptation and growth in the flea digestive tract. Biofilm formation and its development is dependent on the synthesis of an extracellular polysaccharide matrix by cells. This is a highly regulated process in Y. pestis cells that likely occurs after these bacteria sense relevant environmental cues in the flea gut. Some of the Y. pestis-encoded factors that regulate the formation of the biofilm-mediated foregut blockage of the flea digestive tract are described here.
