Watson Lecture - From the Soil to the Clinic: How Infection-Causing Microbes Thrive Without Oxygen

Chronic infections cause major harm in humans: they can destroy the lungs of individuals living with cystic fibrosis or lead to limb amputations in diabetics whose wounds fail to heal. The common connection among these chronic infections is the types of microbes that cause them. Such microbes often hail from the soil, where they typically grow slowly and cope with large fluctuations in oxygen concentrations. In the body, their ability to survive in the absence of oxygen renders them difficult to treat with conventional antibiotics. In this lecture, Newman will explain how her lab is characterizing the microenvironments and metabolic states of these pathogens, mindful of their soil origins, in order to understand not only how they survive in their oxygen-limited environments, but also how to develop new and more effective therapeutic approaches.

This Zoom webinar is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required.

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Each Watson Lecture will begin at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time as a Zoom Webinar with live audience Q&A at the end. Please note the new start time. At 8 p.m. Pacific Time the recorded lecture (without Q&A) will be posted on Caltech's YouTube channel.

About the Speaker

Dianne K. Newman is Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology and Executive Officer for Molecular Biology at Caltech.

About the Series

Since 1922, The Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series has brought Caltech's most innovative scientific research to the public. The series is named for Earnest C. Watson, a professor of physics at Caltech from 1919 until 1959. Spotlighting a small selection of the pioneering research Caltech's faculty is currently conducting, the Watson Lectures are geared toward a general audience, as part of the Institute's ongoing commitment to benefiting the local community through education and outreach. Through a gift from the estate of Richard C. Biedebach, the lecture series is able to highlight assistant professors' research each season.

Many past Watson Lectures are available in a playlist on YouTube.