Our research- Åsa Sjöling Group

The Sjöling group studies how pathogenic bacteria regulate virulence and survival in response to gastrointestinal- and environmental factors, and how antibiotic resistance genes spread within bacterial populations.

Gastroenteric bacterial virulence regulation and transmission mechanisms

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a major cause of diarrhea in children and adults in endemic areas and also a common cause of travellers’ diarrhea and food borne outbreaks of gastroenteritis. We are interested in how ETEC regulate virulence and survival in response to molecules and metabolites present in the human gut, and during dissemination in the environment.

In a second project we study plasmids carrying antibiotic resistance genes and how they are transferred between bacterial isolates by using a combination of microbiological methods and sequencing techniques. We collect both clinical and environmental isolates and aim to determine factors needed for transmission of antibiotic resistance.

Within the group we also have projects on the emerging pathogen and marine bacterium Shewanella spp. as well as studies on uropathogenic E. coli, and human microbiota. We use a combination of molecular and microbiological methods in combination with different sequencing techniques in all our projects.