We have developed a model to study how human bladder cells react to infection by Enterococcus. This is an increasingly important pathogen that infects by completely different mechanisms than the usual uropathogen E. coli. These studies show that the eurothelial cells do not begin to die until about 8 hours after the infection.

We currently are studying the genes involved in the host cell response during this first 8 hours to develop new means of treating bacterial infections in the age of increasing bacterial resistance to antiobiotics.