Corrie Detweiler
Associate Professor
Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology

GOLD A145C

Education

Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, 1998

Biography

Research Interests:
Host-Pathogen Interactions: How pathogenic bacteria evade and manipulate the mammalian immune system. Drug Discovery: Using basic science to identify and develop new antibacterials.

Research Profile: 
We identified a new niche for the bacterial pathogen, Salmonella, during persistent infection. Salmonella resides both within and outside of cells to cause disease. With confocal microscopy, we showed that the bacteria lives in macrophages that have engulfed erythrocytes or leukocytes, called "hemophagocytic" macrophages (HMs). We developed a cell culture model of HMs and with it established that HMs are able to kill E. coli but not Salmonella, that Salmonella acquires the essential nutrient iron from HMs, and that Salmonella stimulates macrophages to engulf erythrocytes to become HMs. In addition, Salmonella-infected mice, like humans with typhoid fever, accumulate HMs. We also recently embarked on a complementary project to identify new antibacterial therapeutics.

Pilonieta MC, Moreland SM, English CN, Detweiler CS. Salmonella enterica infection stimulates macrophages to hemophagocytose. MBio. 2014 Dec 9;5(6):e02211. doi:10.1128/mBio.02211-14. PubMed PMID: 25491357.

Nagy TA, Moreland SM, Detweiler CS. Salmonella acquires ferrous iron from haemophagocytic macrophages. Mol Microbiol. 2014 Sep;93(6):1314-26. doi: 10.1111/mmi.12739. Epub 2014 Aug 14. PubMed PMID: 25081030; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4160465.

McCoy MW, Moreland SM, Detweiler CS. Hemophagocytic macrophages in murine typhoid fever have an anti-inflammatory phenotype. Infect Immun. 2012 Oct;80(10):3642-9. doi: 10.1128/IAI.00656-12. Epub 2012 Aug 6. PubMed PMID: 22868497; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3457584.

Nix RN, Altschuler SE, Henson PM, Detweiler CS. Hemophagocytic macrophages harbor Salmonella enterica during persistent infection. PLoS Pathog. 2007 Dec;3(12):e193. PubMed PMID: 18085823; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2134957.

NCBI List of Publications