Patricia Kiley
Credentials: Biomolecular Chemistry Department
Position title: Molecular genetics and biochemistry of oxygen regulated gene expression and transcription activation
Email: pjkiley@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-6632
Address:
Biochemistry Building
420 Henry Mall
Madison, WI 53706
LAB WEBSITE:
https://bmolchem.wisc.edu/staff/kiley-tricia/
FOCUS GROUPS:
Molecular & Genome Biology of Microbes; Cellular & Molecular Metabolism
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
We are interested in the signaling pathways and gene expression programs organisms use to respond to changes in the levels of oxygen (O2) in the environment. O2 is essential for life of aerobic organisms but can also act as a poison by causing oxidative damage to proteins, lipids and DNA. Therefore, an organism’s ability to respond efficiently and precisely to O2 is critical to its survival. Our approach is to focus on the mechanisms of key transcription factors in Escherichia coli that regulate this single-celled microbe’s lifestyle in different oxygen environments. E. coli is an excellent model organism to investigate because of the rich history of study in this area, and because of the facile genomic, molecular genetic, biochemical, physiological and genome scale approaches that can be exploited in this bacterium. Our findings also impact on understanding the integration of global regulatory networks with signal specific regulators to efficiently control gene expression in response to various inputs.
ALSO A TRAINER IN THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS: Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB), and Microbiology (MDTP)