008: Murderous Microbes: The Type Six Secretion System – Stefan Pukatzki, Ph.D.

Dr. Stefan Pukatzki is a Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado in Denver. Dr. Pukatzki studies Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes the human disease cholera. Cholera is a dangerous water-borne disease that rapidly spreads through human populations in large epidemics. Dr. Pukatzki discovered that V. cholerae has a stabbing device, the Type Six Secretion system, that it uses to inject poisons into surrounding bacteria to kill them off and gain a competitive advantage. This stabbing device is wide-spread through many types of bacteria, illuminating the violent interactions that regularly take place among microbes. Dr. Pukatzki discusses Type Six Secretion, cholera, and serendipity.

Discussants (in alphabetical order):

Dr. Neal Guentzel (Professor and Parliamentarian of STCEID, UTSA)

Dr. Karl Klose (Professor and Director of STCEID, UTSA)