March 5, 2018

Georgiana Purdy, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, OHSU School of Medicine, has been appointed a member of the NIH Bacterial Pathogenesis Study Section effective July 1 and ending June 30, 2022. Members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors.

Research in the Purdy Lab focuses on M. tuberculosis (Mtb) physiology and pathogenesis. The lab has several concurrent projects that substantially contribute to the field by identifying mycobacterial intrinsic resistance mechanisms and elucidating the biosynthesis of the mycobacterial cell wall.

Dr. Purdy obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003, working with Dr. Shelley Payne on the bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri. Specifically, her thesis project focused on the role of S. flexneri periplasmic chaperones in virulence and the extracytoplasmic stress response. She completed postdoctoral training with Dr. David Russell at Cornell University, where she studied the host-pathogen interface between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the macrophage. Her postdoctoral research demonstrated that the mycobactericidal properties of macrophages include the delivery of bacteria to a hydrolytic lysosome enriched in bactericidal Ub-peptides (Alonso et al., 2007). This novel insight dramatically impacted the field’s understanding of how M. tuberculosis was killed by activated and autophagic macrophages.