Student Victoria Stone Wins NIH Award
After Vickie graduated, she worked as an analytical laboratory technician in General Dynamics for three years. In this role she analyzed components of gun powder/ explosives but came to realize that although the job was important it was not giving her the intellectual challenge she was seeking. After seven years in the Florida heat she decided to move north to a cooler climate and seek a PhD position.
In 2009 Vickie was accepted into the Microbiology/Immunology graduate program in the VCU School of Medicine. The program is a five year one and Vickie completed four research rotations before she chose Dr Xu at VCU School of Dentistry as her mentor.
For her PhD Vickie is attempting to identify compounds that will specifically target gram negative oral pathogens. There are over 700 different microorganisms on the oral cavity. Most are benign or beneficial but some such as P gingivalis are implicated in periodontal disease, which affects approximately 50% of the adult population in the United States. Vickie hopes to identify compounds that will kill the harmful bacteria and leave the helpful bacteria alive.
By comparing P gingivalis with S sanguinis a gram positive bacteria that is a benign early colonizer Dr Xu’s laboratory was able to identify a specific enzyme essential in P gingivalis but absent in S sanguinis. The enzyme is diaminopimelate dehydrogenase and its product is involved in crosslinking the cell wall of gram-negative but not gram-positive bacteria. The enzyme is also involved in the synthesis of the amino acid lysine.
Using computer based design Vickie developed a 3D model of the protein and identified the active domain. She has subsequently used in silico screening techniques to identify a number of compounds that could interact with this domain, knock out the enzyme activity, and thus kill P gingivalis. To date none of these compounds have been specific to her target. She is currently refining her screening methodology and increasing the number of compounds she will screen. Her research fellowship will help fund her for the next two years to complete this work and graduate with a PhD.
To date Vickie has a publication in Scientific Reports, is currently working on a manuscript about her current research and has presented her work at the American Society for Microbiology in Colorado this summer. On completion of her PhD Vicki plans to continue working in dental research and is considering looking at more clinically focused research. Vickie says: I would love it if one day down the line my work in some way contributed to a new clinical strategy. I know it’s a long road from bench top to clinical application, but I hope the basis of my research can be useful in sparking an interest in studying alternative treatments for oral infections. This is especially important now with the continued misuse of antibiotics and the rise in antibiotic resistant pathogens.
Categories Research