Maria Hadjifrangiskou, Ph.D.

Maria Hadjifrangiskou, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Associate Professor, Urology
Associate Director, Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation (VI4)

Areas of Interest: Infectious Diseases and Immunity; Cell Signaling; Imaging

Member: VI4; VMI

In the Hadjifrangiskou Lab (or in short, the H-Lab, or the Mighty Hadjis), we are interested in understanding regulatory mechanisms that underlie multicellular behavior, bacterial competition and virulence in bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTI). The bacterial uropathogen we focus on the most is uropathogenic E. coli, which accounts for the majority of community- and hospital-acquired UTIs worldwide.

Our long-term goal is to identify better disease diagnostics, as well as pathogen-specific therapeutic targets

Currently, antibiotics are the primary treatment option for UTI, however they oftentimes fail to eliminate infection, they perturb the host microbial flora and select for increased antibiotic resistance. This means that there is a pressing need for the development of alternative strategies for preventing and/or treating UTIs. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), have developed a remarkable mechanism to evade host immune defenses and establish infection, by forming biofilm-like intracellular bacterial communities inside bladder cells, in addition to forming extracellular biofilms on host cell surfaces and on catheter implants. Following acute infection, UPEC can persist within the host, either in underlying epithelial cell layers in the bladder, or within the host GI tract.

We are interested in identifying and dissecting the sensory/signal transduction networks that UPEC rely on to sample the host environment and guide: A) UPEC bacterial interactions in the gut and en route to the urinary tract and; B) biofilm formation on and withing bladder cells.