Blanca Barquera's investigation into the energy-generating processes of Bacteroides, the most abundant member of the gut microbiome, and their impact on our well-being holds the promise of significant advancements in human health. Barquera is a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry and Chemical Biology.
An estimated 50 million people worldwide live with dementia, a syndrome that progressively affects a person’s cognitive function. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, but a full understanding of the mechanisms behind how and why it occurs remains elusive.
With support from a four-year $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Blanca Barquera, an associate professor of biological sciences, and a team including researchers at Tufts University and Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital are examining evidence that Bacteroides can create energy with and without oxygen by using aerobic and anaerobic respiration, an unusual feature among many human gut bacteria.
The bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa can thrive in environments as different as the moist, warm tissue in our lungs, and the dry, nutrient-deprived surface of an office wall. How does Pseudomonas survive in so many environments?
Suicide allows bacteria found in opportunistic infections to create an antibiotic tolerant biofilm, according to a team including researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).