Harshey Lab

About The Harshey Lab

The Harshey Lab studies two different areas. The first is the repair of Mu DNA transposition events. Transposition is not complete until short gaps created in the target on either side of the transposed element are repaired, yet how this happens is still not known. The repair assays the Harshey Lab is developing will be important for obtaining insights into this integral aspect of transposition, and should present a potent new target for drug development. Thus, knowledge of the repair process is not only necessary to fully understand the biology of transposition, but can be potentially used to block deleterious transposition events.

The second area Harshey researchers study is the flagellar motor as a sensor. In E. coli and Salmonella, chemosensory information from the environment is detected by chemoreceptors and transduced to the flagellar motor, modulating its CW/CCW bias, and enabling the bacterium to seek optimal habitats. Here, the motor is at the output end of the sensory response. Certain responses between the motor and bacterium play important roles in bacterial infection, surface colonization, persistence and pathogenesis. The Harshey Lab is currently elucidating this sensory mechanism. Lab scientists are also studying why swarming bacteria have a higher tolerance to antibiotics, and are using their knowledge of key motility mechanisms to design new antimicrobial targets.
 

2023 Research

2022 Research

2021 Research:

2020 Research: