Ariane Balaram

Research/Areas of Interest

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a gram negative bacterium that is able to colonize a wide variety of tissue environments, and can cause diseases such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections,  and less commonly, liver abcesses, bacteremia and skin and mucosal infections. One of the first cell types to control Klebsiella infection in the body are neutrophils, short lived effector cells that can antagonize invading bacterial species by phagocytosing them, deploying reactive oxygen species, bombarding them with antimicrobial substances or releasing sticky extracellular NETs to trap the bacteria. I am studying the ways in which Klebsiella is antagonized by neutrophils, and the protein players involved in this process.