Nathan Weyand

Many bacteria can persist in the body without eliciting disease symptoms. One bacterial pathogen capable of high levels of asymptomatic carriage in humans is Neisseria gonorrhoeae. N. gonorrhoeae recruits human proteins on the surface of infected cells to the site bacterial adhesion. I am working to understand the functional consequences of protein recruitment. For example, do recruited proteins protect N. gonorrhoeae from innate immune defenses like the complement cascade that can bind and kill this important human pathogen. A second area of my research is the development of animal models that mimic aspects of Neisseria-host interactions that have been refractory to in vivo experimentation including colonization, transmission and the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Representative Publications

• Weyand NJ, Wertheimer AM, Hobbs TR, Sisko JL, Taku NA, Gregston LD, Clary S, Higashi DL, Biais N, Brown LM, Planer SL, Legasse AW, Axthelm MK, Wong SW, So M. (2013) Neisseria infection of rhesus macaques as a model to study colonization, transmission, persistence, and horizontal gene transfer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110(8): 3059-3064.
• Higashi DL, Biais, N, Weyand NJ, Agellon A, Sisko JL, Brown LM, So M. (2011) N. elongata produces type IV pili that mediate interspecies gene transfer with N. gonorrhoeae. PLoS One. 6(6): e21373.
• Weyand NJ, Calton CM, Higashi DL, Kanack KJ, So M. (2010) Presenilin/gamma-secretase cleaves CD46 in response to Neisseria infection. Journal of Immunology. 184:694-701.
• Marri PR, Paniscus M, Weyand NJ, Rendón MA, Calton CM, Hernández DR, Higashi DL, Sodergren E, Weinstock GM, Rounsley SD, So M. (2010) Genome sequencing reveals widespread virulence gene exchange among human Neisseria species. PLoS One. Jul 28;5(7):e11835.
• Weyand NJ, Lee SW, Higashi DL, Cawley D, Yoshihara P, So M. (2006) Monoclonal Antibody Detection of CD46 Clustering beneath Neisseria gonorrhoeae Microcolonies. Infection and Immunity 74: 2428-35.