Home Department: Human Biology
Mentor: Monther Abu-Remaileh (Chemical Engineering and Genetics)

“Analysis of Metabolic Pathways Crucial to Salmonella Survival and Proliferation”

Bryant will study the process in which the Salmonella bacteria obtain nutrients to grow and replicate in human cells. He is performing the Salmonella infection on human macrophage cells in vitro (outside of the human body) and extracting solely the Salmonella from inside the macrophage. He will then identify the nutrients that Salmonella bacteria are taking from human cells to grow and replicate. His work will help the Abu-Remaileh lab to create drugs that target production of these nutrients so that it is hard for Salmonella to find these nutrients in our cells, thus halting the infection. Starving bacteria in this way could be a great way to treat infectious diseases and combat the antibiotic resistance crisis.