Galleria mellonella as an Antimicrobial Screening Model

Our lab seeks to understand how bacteria sense and respond to the environment in the human airways. We characterize airway environments and use the information gained in the design of novel models for studying bacterial physiology during airway infection, and in the identification of novel antimicrobial agents. CFTR modulator therapies have greatly improved lung function and quality of life for individuals with cystic fibrosis.

This improvement may cause changes in bacterial expression and factors involved in both virulence and antimicrobial resistance, which may pose challenges in adapting current preclinical infection models. The development of robust cell culture models has been accelerated through the use of air-liquid interface epithelial cell cultures, which were available in both cystic fibrosis and non-CF variants. At the same time, the use of high throughput approaches like transcriptomics to understand bacterial physiology in infection-relevant conditions has helped us understand whether models recapitulate infection scenarios.

Developing new antimicrobial agents for treating chronic respiratory infections is challenging. Most preclinical drug screening processes do not fully consider the unique challenges in treating infections in the complex and difficult to access environment of the chronically infected lung. We are working with a network of collaborators to try and standardize a preclinical framework for the development of novel antimicrobial agents for the treatment of chronic respiratory infection.

We aim to use the models generated to accelerate drug discovery and to better understand microbial pathogenesis in an airway environment.