Kevin Tamadonfar
Program: Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Current advisor: Scott J. Hultgren, PhD
Undergraduate university: University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Research summary
Urinary tract infections represent a common disease in the United States. These infections can be caused by a number of bacteria, including both Gram-negative and Gram-positive organisms. Among Gram-negative pathogens, chaperone usher pathway (CUP) pili tipped with two-domain adhesin proteins are major virulence factors. The tip adhesin protein commonly mediates the binding tropism of CUP pilus. My work looks to study the structural biology of these CUP adhesins and their associated pilus rods in order to appreciate how these structures mediate adhesin virulence and colonization factor function in host-microbe interactions. In particular, while the #120587; (P pilus) and #120574;1 (Type 1 pilus) pilus groupings have revealed a great deal about the structure and function of CUP pili, the structure-function determinants of pili within the #120574; 4 grouping, which contains clinically-relevant pili across a number of different Gram negative organisms, is less well understood in the context of human colonization and infection.
Graduate publications
Tamadonfar KO, Di Venanzio G, Pinkner JS, Dodson KW, Kalas V, Zimmerman MI, Bazan Villicana J, Bowman GR, Feldman MF, Hultgren SJ. 2023 Structure-function correlates of fibrinogen binding by Acinetobacter adhesins critical in catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 120(4):e2212694120.
Tamadonfar K, Di Venanzio G, Kalas V, Dodson K, Pinkner J, Buckley J, Feldman M, Hultgren S. 2021 Acinetobacter Chaperone Usher Pathway (CUP) Adhesins. , ():.
Tamadonfar K, Klein RD, Buckley JS, Gualberto NC, Zhang S, Chrisler B, Dodson KW, Pinkner JS, Hultgren SJ. 2019 Characterization of CUP pilus adhesin Yqi. , ():.
Tamadonfar KO, Omattage NS, Spaulding CN, Hultgren SJ. 2019 Reaching the End of the Line: Urinary Tract Infection. Microbiol Spectr, 7(3):.