NCI researchers and colleagues have determined the structure of thin hair-like fibers on the surface of a type of E. coli bacteria that is the most common culprit in traveler's diarrhea. The scientists, from NCI's Center for Cancer Research, using atomic resolution technology, have elucidated the mechanics of assembly of these fibers as they exit cells through a pore on the bacterial surface. Knowledge of these structures is currently being used to help guide vaccine development for this disease and could have implications for cancer vaccine development and cancer cell motility studies.

The research is the work of Yongfu Li, Ph.D., Kazuya Nishio, Ph.D., and Di Xia, Ph.D., from the Laboratory of Cell Biology, NCI, and their colleagues from Boston University and the Naval Medical Research Center, Bethesda, Md., and appears in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences at http://www.pnas.org/content/current.

Back to Top