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Virulence (Harmfulness) — A Matchless Web of Dynamic Interactions Between Microbes and Host Cells

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John C. Alverdy, M.D.

John C. Alverdy, M.D.

Sarah and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor
Executive Vice Chair and Vice Chair for Research
Department of Surgery
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
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Timothy A. Johnson Medical Scholar Lecture

Virulence (Harmfulness) — A Matchless Web of Dynamic Interactions Between Microbes and Host Cells   

Room M203, 2 Riverside Circle

Date: May 6, 2025

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About this Seminar

Virulence, or harmfulness to a host, is a property of neither the infecting pathogen nor the host but rather of their interaction. Postoperative infection-related complications (e.g., wound infections, pneumonia, bacteremia, anastomotic leak, and abscess formation), be they a result of an acute process requiring emergency surgery or a result of elective surgery, involve pre-operative anxiety; a period of inanition (e.g., no food after midnight and for the first few days after the initial injury); exposure to antibiotics, general anesthetics, and opioids; and confinement in a microbially hostile environment (e.g., a hospital). In the aggregate, these exposures not only deplete the body of its microbiota and the metabolites they produce that drive a recovery-directed immune response, but also allow epithelial surfaces (e.g., skin, lung, gut, etc.) to become colonized by harm-producing pathobiota. Both the loss of the colonization resistance of the microbiota needed to competitively exclude the pathobiota and the loss of the microbiota’s metabolites that drive a recovery-directed immune response contribute to infection-related complications following acute injury. A view of the hologenome (i.e., all genomes, be they microbial or host-derived) that demonstrates how dense dynamic interactions form between the microbiota, the pathobiota and the host cells will be molecularly detailed. 

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. The Timothy A. Johnson Medical Scholar Lecture Series hosts clinician scientists who are exploring frontiers of medicine. These lectures are principally intended for Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine students and Virginia Tech students in the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health graduate program. Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic faculty, staff, and students may also attend.

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