Neisseria gonorrhoeae are obligate human pathogenix bacteria that mainly cause local infections of the urinary tract but may in rare cases disseminate to the blood stream resulting in serious bacteraemia. Epidemiological data demonstrated a role of the gonococcal outer membrane porin in disseminated gonococcal infection. The presentation will summarize our research on the mechanism underlying the switch from the local to the disseminating phase of infection. Our unpublished work on the structure-function realation of the gonococcal porin and host cell invasion will be presented and a new model of molecular events from local acute to disseminated infection will be discussed.
Thomas Rudel is Professor and Chair of Microbiology at the Biocenter of the University of Würzburg since 2008. He received his Ph.D. at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biology, Department of Infection Biology in 1994. He worked as Research fellow of the DFG at the Scripps Research Institute, Department of Immunology and Cell Biology in La Jola (San Diego/USA). Thomas Rudel was a Group leader at the MPI for Infection Biology in Berlin in 1997. In 2009, Thomas Rudel was appointed as Associate Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in 2003.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Uwe Völker