Caroline Genco

Last updated
Caroline Genco
Provost of Tufts University
Assumed office
January 1, 2022
Thesis Transfer of antibiotic resistance in Gram- negative bacteria  (1987)

Caroline Attardo Genco is an American microbiologist and academic administrator. She is Arthur E. Spiller Professor in Genetics at Tufts University School of Medicine, and provost of Tufts University.

Contents

Life and career

Genco was born to Rita Galletti and Charles Attardo. [1] She was the first member of her family to attend college, completing a B.S. in biology at State University of New York at Fredonia in 1981, and then an M.S. in microbiology from the University of Rochester in 1984. [2] She received her PhD, also at the University of Rochester, in 1987, studying Neisseria gonorrhoeae antibiotic resistance. [3]

Following her graduate studies, Genco completed a post-doc at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Then, in 1989, she was appointed to an assistant professor position at Emory University, before joining the faculty of Morehouse School of Medicine as an associate professor in 1991. [4] From 1997 to 2015, Genco served as Professor of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, where she researched the link between oral bacteria and heart diseases. [5] [6]

In 2015, Genco joined the Tufts University School of Medicine as the Arthur E. Spiller Professor in Genetics and chair of the Department of Immunology. [3] [2] In 2019, she became vice provost for research. [7] She succeeded Nadine Aubry as provost and senior vice president ad interim of Tufts University on January 1, 2022, and was appointed to those positions on a permanent basis on August 1, 2023. [3] [8]

Research

At Tufts, Genco's laboratory researches how the microbiome and innate immune system influence inflammatory diseases. One specific research area of the lab is how mucosal pathogens work to evade macrophages/monocytes and the innate immune response in general. Genco's lab has recently progressed this work from in vitro human tissue culture to in vivo mouse models, and now human cohorts. [9]

Another research focus of Genco's group is how Neisseria bacteria regulate gene transcription, with a focus on how environmental factors influence these pathways. Specifically, the lab has uncovered some of the mechanisms by which Fur (ferric uptake regulator), a regulatory protein, affects the virulence of bacteria. [9]

Genco maintains a particular interest in antibiotic resistance and immune response to Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and especially how these differ in male and female human hosts. Genco's laboratory was one of the first to examine gonorrhea in female patients, and how their typically asymptomatic infections differed from males' typically symptomatic ones. [10] Further, in 2023, Genco co-chaired the 23rd annual International Pathogenic Neisseria Conference (IPNC). [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gram-negative bacteria</span> Group of bacteria that do not retain the Gram stain used in bacterial differentiation

Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that unlike gram-positive bacteria do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is their cell envelope, which consists of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall sandwiched between an inner (cytoplasmic) membrane and an outer membrane. These bacteria are found in all environments that support life on Earth.

<i>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</i> Species of bacterium

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, also known as gonococcus (singular) or gonococci (plural), is a species of Gram-negative diplococci bacteria isolated by Albert Neisser in 1879. It causes the sexually transmitted genitourinary infection gonorrhea as well as other forms of gonococcal disease including disseminated gonococcemia, septic arthritis, and gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum.

<i>Neisseria</i> Genus of bacteria

Neisseria is a large genus of bacteria that colonize the mucosal surfaces of many animals. Of the 11 species that colonize humans, only two are pathogens, N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lipopolysaccharide</span> Class of molecules found in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria

Lipopolysaccharide, now more commonly known as Endotoxin, is a collective term for components of the outermost membrane of cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli and Salmonella. with a common structural architecture. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are large molecules consisting of 3 parts: an outer core polysaccharide termed the O-antigen, an inner core oligosaccharide and Lipid A, all covalently linked. In current terminology, the term endotoxin is often used synonymously with LPS, although there are a few endotoxins that are not related to LPS, such as the so-called delta endotoxin proteins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser</span> German physician

Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser was a German physician who discovered the causative agent (pathogen) of gonorrhea, a strain of bacteria that was named in his honour.

MeNZB was a vaccine against a specific strain of group B meningococcus, used to control an epidemic of meningococcal disease in New Zealand. Most people are able to carry the meningococcus bacteria safely with no ill effects. However, meningococcal disease can cause meningitis and sepsis, resulting in brain damage, failure of various organs, severe skin and soft-tissue damage, and death.

<i>Neisseria meningitidis</i> Species of bacterium that can cause meningitis

Neisseria meningitidis, often referred to as the meningococcus, is a Gram-negative bacterium that can cause meningitis and other forms of meningococcal disease such as meningococcemia, a life-threatening sepsis. The bacterium is referred to as a coccus because it is round, and more specifically a diplococcus because of its tendency to form pairs.

Adhesins are cell-surface components or appendages of bacteria that facilitate adhesion or adherence to other cells or to surfaces, usually in the host they are infecting or living in. Adhesins are a type of virulence factor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pathogenic bacteria</span> Disease-causing bacteria

Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that can cause disease. This article focuses on the bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. Most species of bacteria are harmless and are often beneficial but others can cause infectious diseases. The number of these pathogenic species in humans is estimated to be fewer than a hundred. By contrast, several thousand species are part of the gut flora present in the digestive tract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gonorrhea</span> Sexually transmitted infection

Gonorrhoea or gonorrhea, colloquially known as the clap, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Infection may involve the genitals, mouth, or rectum. Infected men may experience pain or burning with urination, discharge from the penis, or testicular pain. Infected women may experience burning with urination, vaginal discharge, vaginal bleeding between periods, or pelvic pain. Complications in women include pelvic inflammatory disease and in men include inflammation of the epididymis. Many of those infected, however, have no symptoms. If untreated, gonorrhea can spread to joints or heart valves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gonococcemia</span> Medical condition

Gonococcemia is a rare complication of mucosal Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection, or Gonorrhea, that occurs when the bacteria invade the bloodstream. It is characterized by fever, tender hemorrhagic pustules on the extremities or the trunk, migratory polyarthritis, and tenosynovitis. It also rarely leads to endocarditis and meningitis. This condition occurs in 0.5-3% of individuals with gonorrhea, and it usually presents 2–3 weeks after acquiring the infection. Risk factors include female sex, sexual promiscuity, and infection with resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. This condition is treated with cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antibiotic resistance in gonorrhea</span>

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, has developed antibiotic resistance to many antibiotics. The bacteria was first identified in 1879.

Simin Nikbin Meydani is an Iranian-American nutrition scientist and professor who is the Vice Provost of Research at Tufts University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City agar</span>

The NYC medium or GC medium agar is used for isolating Gonococci.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akiko Iwasaki</span> Immunobiologist

Akiko Iwasaki is a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She is also a principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research interests include innate immunity, autophagy, inflammasomes, sexually transmitted infections, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory virus infections, influenza infection, T cell immunity, commensal bacteria, COVID-19, and long COVID.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lalita Ramakrishnan</span> Indian-American microbiologist

Lalita Ramakrishnan is an Indian-born American microbiologist who is known for her contributions to the understanding of the biological mechanism of tuberculosis. As of 2019 she serves as a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and a practicing physician. Her research is conducted at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she serves as the Head of the Molecular Immunity Unit of the Department of Medicine embedded at the MRC LMB. Working with Stanley Falkow at Stanford, she developed the strategy of using Mycobacterium marinum infection as a model for tuberculosis. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Science, Nature, and Cell. In 2018 and 2019 Ramakrishnan coauthored two influential papers in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) arguing that the widely accepted estimates of the prevalence of latent tuberculosis—estimates used as a basis for allocation of research funds—are far too high. She is married to Mark Troll, a physical chemist.

B. Brett Finlay, is a Canadian microbiologist well known for his contributions to understanding how microbes cause disease in people and developing new tools for fighting infections, as well as the role the microbiota plays in human health and disease. Science.ca describes him as one of the world's foremost experts on the molecular understanding of the ways bacteria infect their hosts. He also led the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative (SAVI) and developed vaccines to SARS and a bovine vaccine to E. coli O157:H7. His current research interests focus on pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella pathogenicity, and the role of the microbiota in infections, asthma, and malnutrition. He is currently the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor and a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Co-director and Senior Fellow for the CIFAR Humans and Microbes program. He is also co-author of the book Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World and The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes - Inside and Out - For Lifelong Health. Finlay is the author of over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and served as editor of several professional publications for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Hinton</span>

Dr. Jane Hinton (1919–2003) was a pioneer in the study of bacterial antibiotic resistance and one of the first two African-American women to gain the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (1949). Prior to her veterinary medicine studies at the University of Pennsylvania, she had been a laboratory technician at Harvard, co-developing the Mueller–Hinton agar, a culture medium that is now commonly used to test bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics. She later practiced as a small animal veterinarian in Massachusetts, and then as a federal government inspector investigating disease outbreak in livestock for the Department of Agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robyn S. Klein</span> American neuroimmunologist

Robyn S. Klein is an American neuroimmunologist as well as the Vice Provost and Associate Dean for Graduate Education at Washington University in St. Louis. Klein is also a professor in the Departments of Medicine, Anatomy & Neurobiology, and Pathology & Immunology. Her research explores the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation in the central nervous system by probing how immune signalling molecules regulate blood brain barrier permeability. Klein is also a fervent advocate for gender equity in STEM, publishing mechanisms to improve gender equity in speakers at conferences, participating nationally on gender equity discussion panels, and through service as the president of the Academic Women’s Network at the Washington University School of Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica A. Scoffield</span> American microbiologist

Jessica A. Scoffield is an American microbiologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. Scoffield studies the mechanisms by which oral commensal bacteria interfere with pathogenic bacterial growth in order to inform the development of active therapeutic tools to prevent drug resistant pathogen infection. In 2019, Scoffield became the inaugural recipient of the American Association for Dental Research Procter and Gamble Underrepresented Faculty Research Fellowship.

References

  1. Marquard, Bryan (2011-06-13). "Christina Genco, at 22; cyclist pedaled to benefit others". The Boston Globe. pp. B10. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  2. 1 2 "A Conversation with Caroline Genco, Tufts' New Provost and Senior Vice President | Tufts Now". now.tufts.edu. 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2024-07-01.
  3. 1 2 3 "Faculty profile". Tufts University . Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  4. Genco, Caroline. "Caroline Genco | LinkedIn". LinkedIn.
  5. Bigelow, Tod (2009-07-15). "Periodontal heart diseases link found". Hattiesburg American. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  6. Nelson, Angela (2021-08-31). "Caroline Genco Named Interim Provost and Vice President of Tufts". Tufts Now. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  7. "Caroline Genco to Serve as Provost at Tufts University in Massachusetts". Women In Academia Report. 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
  8. "Caroline Attardo Genco, Ph.D." Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  9. 1 2 "The Caroline Genco Lab | Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences". gsbs.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  10. "When it comes to gonorrhea, gender matters | Tufts Now". now.tufts.edu. 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2024-07-01.
  11. "Tufts Co-Chairs International Pathogenic Neisseria Conference | Tufts Now". now.tufts.edu. 2023-09-08. Retrieved 2024-07-01.