Welcome to UM, Dr. Patrick Secor!
Tell us a little about yourself, your hobbies and why you choose Missoula:
I was born and raised in Bozeman, MT. I received both my BS in Biochemistry (2006) and
Research focus:
Host-pathogen interactions, bacterial stress responses, filamentous bacteriophage, macromolecular crowding, Pseudomonas
Research abstract:
Bacteria often occupy crowded, polymer-rich environments, especially in the context of chronic infection (sputum, mucus, pus, etc.). Crowding occurs when macromolecules, such as polymers, occupy a high percent volume (>20%) of a given environment, values easily achieved in most biological settings. Crowding is known to affect enzymatic activities, the assembly kinetics of structural proteins, and lipid membrane dynamics, to name a few. However, we know remarkably little about how bacteria sense and respond to macromolecular crowding. This has greatly limited our mechanistic understanding of how this fundamental interaction affects microbial pathogenesis. My lab studies how crowding affects infection phenotypes in the human pathogen Pseudomonas
Research funding:
NIH/NIAID Career transition award (K22), NIH/NIGMSCBSD COBRE young investigator award. Previous funding was from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Recent publications:
PR Secor, G Sass, H Nazik, DA Stevens. 2017. Effect of acute predation with bacteriophage on
PR Secor et al. 2017. Filamentous bacteriophage produced by Pseudomonas
AM Ratjen, PR Secor, PK Singh. 2016. CF airway polymers drive bacterial aggregation and activate bacterial stress responses that promote antibiotic tolerance. Pediatric Pulmonology, 51, 336-336.
JC Penner, JAG Ferreira, PR Secor, JM Sweere, MK Birukova, LM Joubert, et al. 2016. Pf4 bacteriophage produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa inhibits Aspergillus fumigatus metabolism via iron sequestration. Microbiology, 162 (9), 1583-1594.
PR Secor, LK Jennings, LA Michaels, JM Sweere, PK Singh, WC Parks, PL Bollyky. 2016. Biofilm assembly becomes crystal clear–filamentous bacteriophage
PR Secor, JM Sweere, LA Michaels, AV Malkovskiy, D Lazzareschi, et al. 2015. Filamentous bacteriophage
PR Secor, LA Michaels, PK Singh. 2015. Host And Microbial Polymers Passively Aggregate Cf Pathogens Producing Resistance To Killing And Promoting Interspecies Interactions. Pediatric Pulmonology, 50, 308.
LK Jennings, KM Storek, HE Ledvina, C Coulon, LS Marmont, I Sadovskaya, PR Secor, et al. 2015. Pel is a cationic exopolysaccharide that cross-links extracellular DNA in the Pseudomonas
Welcome to UM, Patrick Secor!