Overview

Dr. Colangeli received a Ph.D. in Microbiology and one in Infectious Diseases from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. He worked in the Microbiology Department at the Italian National Institute of Health (Instituto Superiore di Sanita?). After moving to NYC, he joined the Public Health Research Institute as a Post-Doctoral research fellow working in Immunology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Dr. Colangeli was also a Post-Doctoral research fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He joined Rutgers in 2002 as a research associate, and now he is an Assistant Professor working with Genetics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He is also a consultant on Bacterial Infections in a project from the European Union.

Education

PHD, 1993, University of Rome "La Sapienza"
BSc, 1985, Instituto Tecnico Industriale L. Lagrange, Italy

Languages

Italian

Antibiotic resistance and tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

1. The overall aim of my research is to understand the molecular mechanisms which
allow Mycobacterium tuberculosis to develop resistance to antibiotics. In particular, I am
focusing my research on antibiotic tolerance which represents the first step in acquiring
antibiotic resistance. I have discovered several genes involved in antibiotic tolerance
in M. tuberculosis. Using molecular genetics techniques I discovered a global
transcriptional regulator called lsr2. Among its many functions lsr2 is responsible for
the regulation of efflux pump involved in tolerance to INH. I also initiated a project aim
to delete efflux pumps in M. tuberculosis. We hypothesized that efflux pumps are important
for intrinsic resistance to antibiotics in M. tuberculosis. I have a collection of over 70
pump mutants which I am testing using different antibiotics and survival in macrophage.