SUMMARY | FULL STORY New Center Wields Genome Data to Battle
Bugs can be found almost everywhere: in soil, in water, in
plants and animals. But one place Stephen Lory does not want to
see the bacterium is in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients.
Stephen Lory is director of the new Center for Genomic
Applications and Therapeutics whose first mission is to develop
therapeutics against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis
patients. Lory, professor of microbiology and molecular
genetics, arrived in August from the University of Washington to
direct the new Center for Genomic Applications and Therapeutics
(CGAT). The same week, Nature published the P. aeruginosa
genome, whichLory helped sequence. Together, those events may
signal a new era in CF research. Department chair John Mekalanos
envisions CGAT as eventually taking on a variety of projects.
But its first, focused mission is to "apply state-of-the-art
technology in genetics, chemistry, and immunology" to eradicate
P. aeruginosa in CF patients. The Cyst