Tischler, Anna D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor Department of Microbiology Tufts University, 2005, Ph.D. Office: 612-624-9685 Lab: 612-624-9686 Email: tischler@umn.edu

Research interests:
The bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is unusual in its ability to persist in the lungs of infected humans for many years, despite triggering a robust immune response. My laboratory seeks to identify and characterize factors that Mtb requires for evasion of host adaptive immunity and persistence. We use a combination of bacterial genetics and the mouse infection model to identify these “counter-immune” factors.

The laboratory is currently focused on characterization of an Mtb signal transduction system, Pst/SenX3-RegX3, which regulates gene expression in response to phosphate availability. Mtb mutants that lack components of this system are specifically sensitive to host adaptive immunity and fail to persist in the lungs of mice. We aim to identify the genes controlled by this system that directly contribute to avoidance of host immune responses. Knowledge of these interactions between host and pathogen may contribute to vaccine design, as well as provide novel targets for therapeutic intervention.

Selected recent publications:
Tischler AD, Leistikow R, Kirksey MA, Voskuil MI, McKinney JD. Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires phosphate-response transcriptional regulation to resist host immunity. In preparation.

Kirksey MA, Tischler AD, Siméone R, Hisert KB, Uplekar S, Guilhot C, McKinney JD. 2011. Spontaneous phthiocerol dimycocerosate-deficient variants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are susceptible to gamma interferon-mediated immunity. Infect Immun. 79:2829-2838.

Tischler AD, McKinney JD. 2010. Constrasting persistence strategies in Salmonella and Mycobacterium. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 13:93-99.

Tischler AD, Camilli A. 2005. Cyclic diguanylate regulates Vibrio cholerae virulence gene expression. Infect. Immun. 73:5873-5882.

Tamayo R, Tischler AD, Camilli A. 2005. The EAL domain protein VieA is a cyclic diguanylate phosphodiesterase. J. Biol. Chem. 280: 33324-33330.

Tischler AD, Camilli A. 2004. Cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) regulates Vibrio cholerae biofilm formation. Mol. Microbiol. 53:857-869.