2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium
Location
John Deere Auditorium, Curris Business Building, University of Nothern Iowa
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation (UNI Access Only)
Document Type
poster
Abstract
Bacteriophages (‘phages’) are viruses that parasitize (and often kill) specific bacteria, including the common soil inhabitants Bacillus cereus and B. anthracis. Bacillus cereus is a foodborne pathogen that can produce toxins, causing two types of gastrointestinal illness: the emetic (vomiting) syndrome and the diarrhoeal syndrome. When the emetic toxin (cereulide) is produced in the food, vomiting occurs after ingestion of the contaminated food. Bacillus anthracis causes considerably more serious inhalation, gastrointestinal or cutaneous anthrax disease. Practical therapeutic or prophylaxis applications against these diseases include ‘phage therapy’, where phages work against bacterial disease agents. Phages suitable for phage therapy applications would need to be physically stable under a wide variety of production, storage, transport and application conditions. We continue work toward molecular characterization of structural proteins of ‘stability selected’ and ‘non selected’ phages, using protein mass spectrometry.
Start Date
26-7-2024 11:00 AM
End Date
26-7-2024 1:30 PM
Event Host
Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Northern Iowa
Faculty Advisor
Michael H. Walter
Department
Department of Biology
Copyright
©2024 Brianna M. Blasnitz, Michael H. Walter
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Blasnitz, Brianna M. and Walter, Michael H., "Towards Structural Protein Analysis of Stability-Selected Bacillus Cereus/Anthracis Bacteriophages" (2024). Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium. 9.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/surp/2024/all/9
Towards Structural Protein Analysis of Stability-Selected Bacillus Cereus/Anthracis Bacteriophages
John Deere Auditorium, Curris Business Building, University of Nothern Iowa
Bacteriophages (‘phages’) are viruses that parasitize (and often kill) specific bacteria, including the common soil inhabitants Bacillus cereus and B. anthracis. Bacillus cereus is a foodborne pathogen that can produce toxins, causing two types of gastrointestinal illness: the emetic (vomiting) syndrome and the diarrhoeal syndrome. When the emetic toxin (cereulide) is produced in the food, vomiting occurs after ingestion of the contaminated food. Bacillus anthracis causes considerably more serious inhalation, gastrointestinal or cutaneous anthrax disease. Practical therapeutic or prophylaxis applications against these diseases include ‘phage therapy’, where phages work against bacterial disease agents. Phages suitable for phage therapy applications would need to be physically stable under a wide variety of production, storage, transport and application conditions. We continue work toward molecular characterization of structural proteins of ‘stability selected’ and ‘non selected’ phages, using protein mass spectrometry.
