Event

Abstract; New infectious diseases routinely emerge from natural reservoirs, with sometimes devastating consequences on human populations. How does this happen? Specifically, what events within natural environments allow proto-pathogens to evolve virulence and eventually jump to humans? Using the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, we study the evolution of microbial virulence in response to natural microbial predators such as amoebae. I will present experiments showing the significant impacts of these invisible host-microbe interactions on bacterial evolution, as well as our studies of the “immune” defenses of amoebae and the evolutionary origins of our own innate immune pathways. Together, we expect these studies will help to uncover the process of new pathogen emergence. They will also reveal what aspects of immunity pathogens encounter (and adapt to overcome) in the wild, long before these microbes ever meet their first human.

Tera Levin Lab website.

Bluesky: @teralevin