Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tufts takes in $287K grant to study bacteria

By Mass High Tech Staff

Tufts University has won a $287,948 federal research grant to study the survival and growth of bacteria, according to the office of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

The grant was awarded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the organizations under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health, itself part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Tufts researchers will investigate the metabolism inside the cells of two related bacterial species, Bacillus subtilis and Listeria monocytogenes.  The hope is that studying the bacterial metabolic processes will help scientists design new antibiotics.

Listeria monocytogenes is the bacterial strain that causes listeriosis, a serious infection.  Bacillus subtilis, the related species, is not dangerous, according to officials.

The NIH has a long history of funding research at Tufts, and just last month Sergei Mirkin, White Family Professor of Biology at Tufts’ School of Arts and Sciences, published results of an NIH-backed study that showed a relationship between certain DNA segments called palindromes and the stoppage of DNA replication, a potential cause of cancer.