|
|
| Name |
Curtiss, Roy |
| Location
|
University of Florida |
| Primary Field
|
Animal, Nutritional and Applied Microbial Sciences |
| Secondary Field
|
Microbial Biology |
 Election Citation
|
|
Curtiss is a leader in understanding the genetic basis for the traits that enable various bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli, to cause disease. He has put this knowledge to work by developing a number of recombinant vaccines against agricultural and human pathogens. Curtiss also pioneered the development of edible vaccines and introduced using biologic containment to prevent genetically engineered organisms from surviving outside the lab. |
|
Research Interests
|
|
Dr. Curtiss' early work was in avian genetics on cross breeding of White Plymouth Rock and White Cornish chickens to yield broilers with better growth properties and meat conformation, genetics of bacteriophage P22 of Salmonella, mechanisms of bacterial conjugation in E. coli and use of bacterial minicells for studies of R and Col plasmids and cloned genes. Later work focused on establishing the molecular genetic bases for pathogenicity of Streptococcus mutans, Shigella flexneri, Mycobacterium leprae, Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli and Bordetella avium. The Curtiss group developed biological containment first for cloned genes in the recombinant DNA debate era and then for attenuated bacterial vaccines derived from pathogenic invasive bacteria. His lab is currently focusing on the design, construction and evaluation of extensicely genetically modified derivatives of Salmonella, and more recently Edwardsiella, as vaccine vectors to deliver protective antigens encoded by genes from other pathogens as well as DNA vaccines encoding such protective antigens. These technologies are being used to evaluate live Protective Immunity Enhanced Bacterial Vaccines (PIEBVs) to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by bacterial, viral and parasite infectious disease agents of fish, poultry, swine, ruminants and humans. |
|
|
|