Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an obligate human pathogen. However, our understanding of the MTB biology in humans is limited by the difficulty of accessing the sites of infection. Bacterial population genetics provides mechanistic insights into the biology of MTB in people. We have leveraged MTB population genetics to identify genes that are evolving to increase the bacterium’s ability to survive drug pressure. This analysis has revealed a novel regulatory circuit governing the integration of chromosomal replication and cell division. Genetic variation in the circuit components alters cell cycle and the ability to restart growth after antibiotic stress.
The newest lecture series, starting Spring 2016, honors Sydney Kustu.
Sydney Govons Kustu was born in 1943 in Baltimore, Md. She earned a B.A. at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UC Davis, and did post-doctoral work at UC Berkeley until 1973, when she was appointed to the UC Davis Bacteriology faculty. She remained at UC Davis until 1986, when she joined what was then Berkeley’s Microbiology and Immunology faculty, with a dual appointment in Plant Pathology. She retired in 2010.
In addition to being a National Academy of Science member, Kustu garnered a large number of other awards during her career at Berkeley. She was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Microbiology. She also held a number of national and international professorships, including a prestigious Gauss Professorship at Universität Göttingen. For more than a decade, her work was supported by National Institutes of Health MERIT Awards. Kustu is best known for her seminal contributions on the responses of intestinal bacteria to nutrient limitations, particularly nitrogen.
Kutsu Lectures
2016 Carol Gross
Spring 2017 Mary Lidstrom
Fall 2017 Christine Jacobs
2019 Fitnat Yildiz
2020 Nina Salama
2023 Dianne K. Newman
Upcoming Kustu Endowed Lectures
There are no upcoming events, please check back for future listings.
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Past Kustu Endowed Lectures
Dianne K. Newman: [Kustu Lecture] Context matters: agathokakological roles for redox-active "antibiotics"
In this talk, Dr. Newman will explain what "agathokakological" means and how this word can help us understand the varied roles microbially-produced redox active metabolites play in diverse contexts, from the soil to chronic human infections. These compounds, many of which are striking pigments that change color when they are oxidized or reduced, can serve as toxins or as lifelines for the cells...
Nina Salama: Kustu Lecture: Bacterial body building: mechanisms and consequences of Helicobacter pylori morphology
Nina Salama studies Helicobacter pylori, a stomach bacterium that infects half the world’s population and is associated with ulcers and gastric cancer — the third leading cancer killer worldwide. Her team found that H. pylori’s unique corkscrew shape allows the bug to colonize the stomach by burrowing into the mucus lining where it is protected from the acidic environment. They found a set of...
Fitnat Yildiz: Kustu Lecture: Mechanisms and Consequences of Biofilm Formation
Fitnat Yildiz's lab at UCSC focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms of biofilm formation, c-di-GMP signaling, and environmental stress response. Dr. Yildiz received her B.S. from Hacettepe University, Turkey followed by her Ph.D. from Indiana University. She was a recipient of the Ellison Medical foundation New Scholar Award in Global Infectious Disease and is a Fellow of the American Academy...
Christine Jacobs Wagner: Kustu Lecture: What makes the Lyme disease bacterium tick?
Christine Jacobs Wagner. Our laboratory is part of the Microbial Sciences Institute at the Yale West Campus. Our group studies the temporal and spatial mechanisms involved in bacterial physiology, with emphasis on chromosome dynamics, cell division, cell cycle regulation, cell morphogenesis and RNA biology. Our primary model organisms are Caulobacter crescentus, Escherichia coli and the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia...
Carol Gross: Kustu Lecture: Manufacture of the bacterial proteome
Carol Gross. Manufacture of the bacterial proteome