Summary
The group A Streptococcus (GAS; also known as Streptococcus pyogenes) is remarkable in its ability to cause a wide variety of human diseases, including pharyngitis (a.k.a. strep throat), pyoderma, rheumatic heart disease, puerperal sepsis, toxic shock syndrome, and necrotizing fasciitis (a.k.a. the flesh-eating infection). Importantly, certain GAS serotypes are non-randomly associated with causing some of these diseases, such as serotype M28 GAS isolates with cases of puerperal sepsis, consistent with there being a genetic component to disease development. Research in the Sumby laboratory focuses on using genetic, genomic, and transcriptomic approaches to discover molecular explanations for observed GAS-serotype disease-phenotype associations.
Education
- B.S., Genetics, University of Leicester, England, U.K.
- Ph.D., Molecular Microbiology, University of Nottingham, England, U.K.