Home Department: undeclared
Mentor: Alex Gao (Biochemistry)

“Investigating Proteolytic Cleavage of a Novel Hydrolase in Bacterial Cell Death"

Bacteria evolved programmed cell death mechanisms to limit phage replication. Preliminary work has identified a novel hydrolase that induces programmed cell death after protease cleavage, but little is known about its mechanisms or role in bacterial immunity. Katherine will investigate the mechanism of hydrolase activation by protease and identify the substrate of cleaved hydrolase with cell culture, in vitro protein assays and bioinformatic approaches. Katherine hypothesizes that cleaved hydrolase degrades an essential cellular metabolite, such as ATP or DNA. This research is important for understanding bacterial immune systems and conserved cell death pathways, potentially revealing new targets for antibiotic development.