Tulane researcher targets bacteria’s protective shield in search for E. coli vaccine

Barri Bronston bbronst@tulane.edu
Jacob Bitoun, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane School of Medicine, focuses on biofilms, protective communities that bacteria form around themselves.

A Tulane University researcher is investigating how a common cause of a disease that poses grave risks for children worldwide protects itself inside the human body. It is work that could reveal new targets for a vaccine capable of stopping multiple strains of the bacteria.

Jacob Bitoun, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane School of Medicine, has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to study biofilms formed by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, or ETEC. Learn more about the new study, which will examine whether ETEC produces distinctive molecules on its surface when growing within a biofilm.