Vanessa Sperandio, Ph.D.
Professor

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Research in my laboratory investigates chemical, stress and nutritional signaling at the interface amongst the mammalian host, beneficial microbiota and invading pathogens. We devise a multi-disciplinary research program utilizing genetic, biochemical, chemical and structural approaches to investigate fundamental biological questions. Our research over the years has focused on:

 1) Bacterial cells sense several mammalian neurotransmitters as a means to gage the physiological and immune state of the host, leading to rewiring and reprogramming of bacterial transcription towards host and niche adaptation. We have also identified several bacterial  adrenergic, endocannabinoid and serotonergic receptors.

 2) We have shown that these bacterial neurotransmitter receptors also sense bacterial signals, such as the novel pirazynone family of AI-3 autoinducers, and indole, which in turn influence mammalian cell signaling, linking inter-kingdom chemical communication at the biochemical level. These studies highlight the co-evolution and the fundamental relationship between mammals and microbes, and that these signaling systems fully integrate bacterial and mammalian cell-behavior.

 3) We also reported that invading pathogens can hijack these inter-kingdom signaling systems to promote virulence expression. We translated these basic science concepts into strategies to develop a novel approach to anti-virulence therapies.

 4) Our work also explored how different chemical signaling systems shape bacterial/host relationships towards commensalism or pathogenesis. This work shows that different chemical relationships define the nature of host/bacterial associations.

 5) We have also shown that enteric pathogens exploit nutritional cues (Carbon, aminoacids and/or nitrogen sources) made available by the gut microbiota as signals to coordinate virulence regulation and modify the pathogen’s metabolism allowing for efficient host colonization.

6) Moreover the cross-signaling with neurotransmitters, which is a key event I the gut-brain-axis, can also lead to new insights into drug addiction, and repurposing of agonists and antagonists of the adrenergic, serotonergic and endocannabinoid systems as potential novel anti-bacterial therapies.

Graduate School

Unlisted - International Colle

Graduate School

Campinas State University (1995), Molecular Biology

• addiction and the microbiome
• Bacterial pathogenesis
• Bacterial virulence gene expression
• E. coli O157:H7
• gut brain axis
• Inter-kingdom signaling
• pathogen-microbiota-host interactions
• Quorum sensing

Featured Publications

QseC mediates Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium virulence in vitro and in vivo.

Moreira, C.G., Weinshenker, D. and Sperandio, V. Infection and Immunity 2010 78 914-26

Inter-kingdom signaling: communication between bacteria and host.

Hughes, D.T, and Sperandio, V. Nature Reviews Microbiology 2008 6 111-20

Targeting QseC signaling and virulence for antibiotic development.

Rasko, D.A., Moreira, C.G., Li, D.R., Reading, N.C., Ritchie, J.M., Waldor, M.K., Williams, N. Taussig, R., Wei, S., Roth, M. Hughes, D.T., Huntley, J.F., Fina, M.W., Falck, J.R., Sperandio, V. Science 2008 321 1078-1080

The QseC sensor kinase: a bacterial adrenergic receptor.

Clarke, M.B, Hughes, D.T., Zhu C., Boedeker, E.C. and Sperandio, V. Proc. Natl Acad. Science U.S.A. 2006 103 10420-10425

Bacteria-host communication: the language of hormones.

Vanessa Sperandio, Alfredo G. Torres, Bruce Jarvis, James P. Nataro, and James B. Kaper PNAS July 2003 100 8951-8956

l-Arginine sensing regulates virulence gene expression and disease progression in enteric pathogens.

Menezes-Garcia Z, Kumar A, Zhu W, Winter SE, Sperandio V, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2020 May

EspFu-Mediated Actin Assembly Enhances Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli Adherence and Activates Host Cell Inflammatory Signaling Pathways.

Martins FH, Kumar A, Abe CM, Carvalho E, Nishiyama-Jr M, Xing C, Sperandio V, Elias WP, mBio 2020 Apr 11 2

Characterization of Autoinducer-3 Structure and Biosynthesis in E. coli.

Kim CS, Gatsios A, Cuesta S, Lam YC, Wei Z, Chen H, Russell RM, Shine EE, Wang R, Wyche TP, Piizzi G, Flavell RA, Palm NW, Sperandio V, Crawford JM, ACS Cent Sci 2020 Feb 6 2 197-206

Diet-derived galacturonic acid regulates virulence and intestinal colonization in enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Citrobacter rodentium.

Jimenez AG, Ellermann M, Abbott W, Sperandio V, Nat Microbiol 2019 Dec

Enterococcus faecalis Enhances Expression and Activity of the Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli Type III Secretion System.

Cameron EA, Sperandio V, Dunny GM, MBio 2019 Nov 10 6

 Featured Books

The epinephrine/norepinephrine/autoinducer-3 inter-kingdom signaling system in Escherichia coli O157:H7. In Microbial endocrinology

Moreira, C.G., and Sperandio, V. (2010). New York, Springer

Regulation in Response to Host-derived Signaling Molecules. In Regulation of Bacterial Virulence

Gruber, C, and Sperandio, V. (2013). Washington DC, ASM Press

Enterohemorrhagic and Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli.

Sperandio V, Hovde, C.J. (Ed.) (2014). Washington DC, ASM Press

Attaching and effacing intestinal histopathology and the locus of enterocyte effacement.. In Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other Shiga-toxin producing E. coli strains.

Kaper, J.B., Elliott, S.J., Sperandio, V., Perna, N.T., Mayhew, G.F., and Blattner, F.R. (1998). Washington DC, ASM Press

LuxS dependent regulation of E. coli virulence. In Bacterial cell-to-cell communication role in virulence and pathogenesis

Clarke, M.B., and Sperandio, V. (2006). Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press

Quorum Sensing in E. coli and Salmonella. In E. coli and Salmonella book

Kendall, M., and Sperandio, V. (2014). Washington DC, ASM Press

The interplay between the microbiota and EHEC. In Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli.

Pifer, R. and Sperandio V. (2014). Washington DC, ASM Press

The Way Forward. In Sperandio. In Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Sperandio V. 2014 (2014). Washington DC, ASM Press

Interference with bacterial cell-to-cell chemical signaling in development of new anti-infectives. In Antibiotics, Targets, Maechanisms, and Resistance

Njoroge, J.W. and Sperandio, V (2013). Weinheim, Germany, Wiley-VCH

Enteric Pathogens Exploit the Microbiota-generated Nutritional Environment of the gut. In Metabolism and Bacterial Pathogenesis.

Pacheco, A.R., and Sperandio V. (2015). Washington DC, ASM Press

Quorum sensing and the gut microbiome. In Quorum Sensing: molecular mechanism and biotechnological application

Jimenez, A.G. and Sperandio V (2019). New York, Elsevier

• NIH Merit award
  grant Meirt award (2017-2027)
• ASM Eli-Lilly and Company-Elanco research award
  Oldest and most pretigious ASM research award (2015-2015)
• GSK Discovery Fast Track challenge program
  drug discovery award (2014-2015)
• Fellow American Academy of Microbiology
  Fellow of the AAM (2013)
• Kavli Fellow
  Kavli Frontiers of Science National Academies of Science (2007)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund
  Investigator in Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases (2006)
• Ellison Foundation Award
  New Scholar of Infectious diseases (2004)
• Dam Charitable Foundation
  Travel Grant (2000)
• Pew Charitable Foundation
  Pew Latin american fellow (1997)

• Vanessa Sperandio (2001-2020)