简介

Dr. Raul G. Barletta is a microbiologist with over 25 years of experience with pathogenic microorganisms. His particular areas of interest are in diseases that are of chronic nature and difficult to diagnose: Tuberculosis (TB), Bovine Tuberculosis and Johne's disease (JD). There are no effective vaccines against these devastating diseases caused by mycobacterial pathogens. In addition, antibiotic resistance, especially in TB, has made it difficult to prevent and treat these conditions. Dr. Barletta hopes his research will lead to vaccines, new drugs and research tools to provide more accurate and faster tests to identify these pathogens. His approaches are based on the understanding of mycobacterial physiology by the use of molecular genetics and redox biology. His laboratory actively collaborates with the Department of Chemistry in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance metabolomics (Dr. Robert Powers) and chemical synthesis (Drs. Patrick H. Dussault and James M. Takacs). He also works on the development of novel diagnosis that could be adapted to all mycobacterial diseases, whether they inflict humans or animals.