Publications

Publications 2020-2023

  • Panwar J, Autour A, Merten CA (2023) Design and consruction of a microfluidics workstation for high-throughput multi-wavelength fluoresence and transmittance activated droplet analysis and sorting. Nat Protocols. doi: 10.1038/s41596-022-00796-2
  • Cacace E, Kim V, Knopp M, Tietgen M, Brauer-Nikonow A, Inecik K, Mateus A, Milanese A, Mårli MT, Mitosch K, Selkrig J, Brochado AR, Kuipers OP, Kjos M, Zeller G, Savitski MM, Göttig S, Huber W, Typas A (2022) High-throughput profiling of drug interactions in Gram-positive bacteria. biorxiv. doi: 10.1101/2022.12.23.521747
  • de Bakker V, Liu X, Bravo AM, Veening JW (2022) CRISPRi-seq for genome-wide fitness quantification in bacteria. Nat Protocols. 17(2):252-281. doi: 10.1038/s41596-021-00639-6
  • Dewachter L, Denereaz J, Liu X, de Bakker V, Costa C, Baldry M, Sirard JC, Veening JW (2022). Amoxicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae can be resensitized by targeting the mevalonate pathway as indicated by sCRilecs-seq. Elife. 11:e75607
  • Bravo A, Typas A, Veening JW (2022) 2FAST2Q: a general-purpose sequence search and counting program for FASTQ files. PeerJ. 10:e14041. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14041
  • Myrbråten I, Stamsås GA, Chan H, Morales Angeles D, Knutsen TM, Salehian Z, Shapaval V, Straume D, Kjos M. mBio. 13(2):e0340421. doi: 10.1128/mbio.03404-21
  • Gallay C, Sanselicio S, Anderson ME, Soh YE, Liu X, Stamsås G, Pelliciari S, van Raaphorst R, Denereaz J, Kjos M, Murray H, Gruber S, Grossman AD, Veening JW (2021) Nat Microbiol. CcrZ is a pneumococcal spatiotemporal cell cycle regulator that interacts with FtsZ and controls DNA replication by modulating activity of DnaA. 6(9):1175-1187. doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00949-1
  • Kranjec C, Morales Angeles D, Mårli MT, Fernandez L, Garcia P, Diep DB, Kjos M (2021) Staphylococcal biofilms: challenges and novel therapeutic perspectives. Antibiotics (Basel). 10(2): 131. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10020131
  • Liu X, Kimmey JM, Matarzzo L, de Bakker V, van Maele L, Sirard JC, Nizet V, Veening JW (2020) Exploration of bacterial bottlenecks and Streptococcus pneumoniae pathogenesis by CRISPRi-Seq. Cell Host Microbe. S1931-3128(20)30559-X. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.10.001
  • Stamsås GA, Restelli M, Ducret A, Freton C, Garcia PS, Håvarstein LS, Straume D, Grangeasse C, Kjos M (2020) A CozE homolog contributes to cell size homeostasis of Streptococcus pneumoniae. mBio. 11(5):e02461-20. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02461-20
  • Fergestad ME, Stamsås GA, Morales Angeles D, Salehian Z, Wasteson Y, Kjos M (2020) Penicillin-binding protein PBP2a provides variable levels of protection toward different β-lactams in Staphylococcus aureus RN4220. Microbiologyopen. 9(8):e1057. doi: 10.1002/mbo3.1057 
  • Zhang B, Liu X, Lambert E, Mas G, Hiller S, Veening JW, Perez C (2020) Structure of a proton-dependent lipid transporter involved in lipoteichoic acids biosynthesis. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 27(6):561-569. doi: 10.1038/s41594-020-0425-5 
  • Kurushima J, Campo N, van Raaphorst R, Cerckel G, Polard P, Veening JW (2020) Unbiased homeologous recombination during pneumococcal transformation allows for multiple chromosomal integration events. Elife. 9:e28771 doi: 10.7554/eLife.58771.
  • Sorg RA, Gallay C, van Maele L, Sirard JC, Veening JW (2020) Synthetic gene-regulatory networks in the opportunistic human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 117(44): 2760-27619. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1920015117.
Challenge

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem worldwide. Infections caused by for example staphylococci (S. aureus), pneumococci (S. pneumoniae), E. coli and Pseudomonas are nowadays often difficult to treat due to increasing antimicrobial resistance. Infections caused by these pathogens are particularly problematic if they are associated with biofilms, since the biofilm provides extra protection against antimicrobial compounds.

Project

The aim of the project DISRUPT is to identify new strategies to treat biofilm-associated infections caused by staphylococci, pneumococci, E. coli and Pseudomonas. Targeting and inhibiting bacterial biofilm formation will reduce the chances of infections, and possibly resensitize the bacteria to existing antibiotics. By using state-of-the-art genetic technologies combined with high-throughput screens, the aim is to deliver new anti-biofilm strategies and mechanisms to tackle biofilm-associated infections. Furthermore, the project will generate genetic tools, which will be available for researchers worldwide, working to fight these AMR pathogens.