Laurence Rahme

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laurence G. Rahme
Born
Bsharri, Lebanon
NationalityGreek, American
Alma materUniversity of Naples, Italy (BSc in Biology)
Institute of Genetics and Biophysics CNR, University of Naples, Italy (MS in Molecular Genetics)
University of California at Berkeley (PhD in Microbiology)
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (post-doctoral fellowship)
Known forAntivirulence drugs, alternatives to antibiotics
AwardsAmerican Academy of Microbiology Fellow (2017)
Scientific career
FieldsMicrobiology, molecular genetics, immunology, molecular biology
InstitutionsMassachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (1992-present)
Shriners Hospitals for Children (1997-present)

Laurence G. Rahme is an American microbiologist who is Professor of Surgery and Microbiology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) she also holds the title of Director of the Molecular Surgical Laboratory as a microbiologist in the Department of Surgery and Molecular Biology.[1][2] Additionally, she holds a Senior Scientific Staff position at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Boston.[3]

Early life and education[edit]

She received her BSc from the University of Naples, Italy, her MS from the Institute of Genetics and Biophysics CNR, University of Naples, Italy, and her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Department of Molecular Biology Massachusetts General Hospital/ and Department of Genetics Harvard Medical School. She was also awarded an honorary MS degree from Harvard Medical School.

Research[edit]

Rahme is best known for her pioneering work on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, demonstrating for the first time that this bacterium shares a subset of virulence factors required for the full expression of pathogenicity in both plants and animals,[4] and for the identification of a quorum sensing (QS) system in the organism.[5] Using plants as a model host to study Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenicity led her and her colleagues to develop multi-host model systems for the identification of virulence factors in bacteria in a high throughput manner.[4] Researchers studying the human opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the laboratory setting internationally today often use the multi-host infection models developed using the "PA14" strain she identified as a model strain [6][7]

Using her established system, she discovered that the multiple virulence factor regulator (MvfR) is a key regulator of bacterial quorum-sensing signaling and pathogenesis in various host organisms.[8][5] Based on these findings, she works on the development of anti-virulence drugs as an alternative or adjunct to antibiotics[9] and co-founded in 2014 Spero Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[10][11][12][13] Her work in host-pathogen interactions continues to inspire researchers in developing novel ways to fight infections. Her group efforts in developing prognostic biomarkers for the identification of patients at high risk for multiple infections is expected to open new avenues in the personalized care of these patients.

Rahme has published over 100 scientific articles[14] and holds more than 15 patents[15][16] with applications to combatting bacterial infections, and to strategies to limit the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains. She has also been on, or currently serves on advisory and editorial boards of numerous[quantify] scientific journals, and has served as an ad-hoc member on review panels at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DoD), and several national and international research foundations.[17][18]

Awards and honors[edit]

  • 2020-2025: MGH Research Scholar[19]
  • 2017: Elected to the American Academy of Microbiology[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Loop - Laurence Rahme". loop.frontiersin.org.
  2. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2018-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Spotlight on Shriners Hospitals for Children — Boston research faculty". www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.
  4. ^ a b Strauss, Evelyn (22 December 2000). "Simple Hosts May Help Reveal How Bacteria Infect Cells". Science. 290 (5500): 2245–7. doi:10.1126/science.290.5500.2245. PMID 11188717. S2CID 13212283.
  5. ^ a b Cao, Hui; Rahme, Laurence G. (4 December 2001). "A quorum sensing-associated virulence gene of Pseudomonas aeruginosa encodes a LysR-like transcription regulator with a unique self-regulatory mechanism". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 98 (25): 14613–8. Bibcode:2001PNAS...9814613C. doi:10.1073/pnas.251465298. PMC 64730. PMID 11724939.
  6. ^ Rahme, Laurence G.; Ausubel, Frederick M. (15 November 1997). "Use of model plant hosts to identify Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence factors". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 94 (24): 13245–50. Bibcode:1997PNAS...9413245R. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.24.13245. PMC 24294. PMID 9371831.
  7. ^ Apidianakis, Yiorgos; Rahme, Laurence G. (13 August 2009). "Drosophila melanogaster as a model host for studying Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection". Nature Protocols. 4 (9): 1285–94. doi:10.1038/nprot.2009.124. PMID 19680242. S2CID 205464380.
  8. ^ Rahme, Laurence G.; Ausubel, Frederick M. (1 August 2000). "Plants and animals share functionally common bacterial virulence factors". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 97 (16): 8815–21. Bibcode:2000PNAS...97.8815R. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.16.8815. PMC 34017. PMID 10922040.
  9. ^ Starkey, Melissa; Lepine, Francois; Maura, Damien; Bandyopadhaya, Arunava; Lesic, Biljana; He, Jianxin; Kitao, Tomoe; Righi, Valeria; Milot, Sylvain; Tzika, Aria; Rahme, Laurence (21 August 2014). "Identification of Anti-virulence Compounds That Disrupt Quorum-Sensing Regulated Acute and Persistent Pathogenicity". PLOS Pathogens. 10 (8): e1004321. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1004321. PMC 4140854. PMID 25144274.
  10. ^ Servick, Kelly (22 May 2015). "The drug push". Science. 348 (6237): 850–853. Bibcode:2015Sci...348..850S. doi:10.1126/science.348.6237.850. PMID 25999488.
  11. ^ Timmerman, Luke. "Merck, New England Patriots Boss Bet $30M On Antibiotics Startup Spero". Forbes.
  12. ^ "Fierce 15: Two Partners Spinoffs Awarded Honors". Partners HealthCare. 2 December 2014.
  13. ^ "What You Need to Know About Spero". BioSpace.
  14. ^ pubmeddev. "rahme l - PubMed - NCBI". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
  15. ^ "Laurence Rahme Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com.
  16. ^ "Laurence G. Rahme Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com.
  17. ^ "Awards and Honors April 2017". Massachusetts General Hospital.
  18. ^ https://ecor.mgh.harvard.edu/content/files/SAC2018_Celebration_of_Science.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  19. ^ "MGH Research Scholars 2020-2025". Massachusetts General Hospital. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  20. ^ "American Academy of Microbiology".
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laurence_Rahme&oldid=1217146741"