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Bauer Lab Research Interests

Our research focuses on human host-pathogen interactions of the sexually transmitted bacterial agent Haemophilus ducreyi.   H. ducreyi is a pathogen of human skin and causes chancroid, a genital ulcer disease endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia that facilitates the transmission of HIV.   We have previously demonstrated that, in an experimental model of H. ducreyi infection, the organism survives extracellularly within pustules in a milieu of professional phagocytes where it is often surrounded by fibrin.  H. ducreyi is also found in the dermis in vivo, where it localizes with collagen. In our research, we use molecular tools and confocal microscopy-based imaging analysis to understand virulence mechanisms by which H. ducreyi survives in vivo. We identify putative virulence factors and determine their roles in human disease through use of a human model of experimental infection. We also characterize these virulence factors at the molecular level and develop appropriate functional assays to define their roles in mechanisms such as adherence or resistance to the killing effects of human phagocytes. In a recently completed study, we examined gene induction in vivo and in response to relevant stimuli in vitro. Through these studies, we identified a number of putative virulence factors that are expressed in vivo. We are currently utilizing the techniques described above to examine their roles in pathogenesis of H. ducreyi.

C.V. & Publications