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 | Medical News Releases > Faculty Experts at Washington University in St. Louis >
Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology
Expertise: urinary tract infection, UTI, bacteria, bacteria-host interactions, biofilms, E. coli, recurrent infection
Bio: Studies in the Hultgren lab are leading to new and better techniques for diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections. Scientists estimate half of all women will experience a UTI at some point in her life, and additional recurrent UTIs will affect 20 to 40 percent of these patients. Hultgren is using a variety of techniques to better understand how the bacteria that cause these infections overwhelm the body's defense mechanisms. In many instances, this involves the bacteria's ability to move through distinct developmental stages, including stages where they form biofilms, cooperative networks in which individual bacteria work together to create structures that collectively increase their resistance to immune system attacks. Hultgren also suspects that some bacteria involved in these infections may be able to slip into an inactive, quiescent phase that lets them return at a later date as a recurrent infection.
WUSTL Contact Information:
Education:
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Ph.D. at Northwestern University
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B.S. at Indiana University
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Fighting infection
Bacteria that cause urinary tract infections invade bladder cells
Dec. 17,
2007 --
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| Scanning electron microscopy image of a filamentous bacterium from a patient with a UTI |
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Scientists at the School of Medicine have found definitive proof that some of the bacteria that plague women with urinary tract infections (UTIs) are entrenched inside human bladder cells. The finding confirms a controversial revision of scientists' model of how bacteria cause UTIs. Previously, most researchers assumed that the bacteria responsible for infections get into the bladder but do not invade the individual cells that line the interior of the bladder.
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Women's health issues
WUSTL creates center to study women's infectious diseases
May 17,
2007 -- The School of Medicine is launching a new effort to study infectious diseases that preferentially affect women. The center for Women's Infectious Disease Research (cWIDR) will focus on issues such as microorganisms that cause urinary tract infections, infections that lead to premature delivery and microorganisms that may contribute to life-threatening conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
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Nair for germs
Treatments for urinary infections leave bacteria bald, happy and vulnerable
Dec. 14,
2006 --
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| The schematic in the center shows how a drug molecule (in the circle) prevents UTIs by stopping pili formation. |
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A different approach to treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) could defeat the bacteria that cause the infections without directly killing them, a strategy that could help slow the growth of antibiotic-resistant infections. Instead of trying to wipe out bacteria, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been working to create pharmaceuticals that essentially "defang" the bacteria by preventing them from assembling pili, microscopic hairs that enable the bacteria to invade host cells and defend themselves against the host's immune system.
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