{"id":11,"date":"2019-04-26T15:10:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T19:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2019-05-03T10:15:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T14:15:09","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-11\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-11-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-11-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-11-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><h1>Research<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-11-1\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-11-1-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-11-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_metaslider_widget panel-first-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><div id=\"metaslider-id-42\" style=\"max-width: 1000px; margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"ml-slider-3-80-0 ml-slider-pro-2-36-0 metaslider metaslider-flex metaslider-42 ml-slider ms-theme-_theme_1446644741\" role=\"region\" aria-roledescription=\"Slideshow\" aria-label=\"Research\">\n    <div id=\"metaslider_container_42\">\n        <div id=\"metaslider_42\">\n            <ul class='slides'>\n                <li style=\"display: block; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-50 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" aria-label=\"slide-50\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2019\/04\/Figure1_Persistence_slideshow.jpg\" height=\"400\" width=\"1000\" alt=\"Figure 1: Persisters survive antibiotic treatment and give rise to a new progeny with comparable antibiotic susceptibility\" class=\"slider-42 slide-50\" title=\"Figure1_Persistence_slideshow\" \/><div class=\"caption-wrap\"><div class=\"caption\">Figure 1: Persisters survive antibiotic treatment and give rise to a new progeny with comparable antibiotic susceptibility.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-51 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" aria-label=\"slide-51\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2019\/04\/Figure2_FQPersisters_slideshow.jpg\" height=\"400\" width=\"1000\" alt=\"Figure 2: Escherichia coli persister recovering from a lethal dose of ofloxacin and forming a new progeny (1)\" class=\"slider-42 slide-51\" title=\"Figure2_FQPersisters_slideshow\" \/><div class=\"caption-wrap\"><div class=\"caption\">Figure 2: <em>Escherichia coli<\/em> persister recovering from a lethal dose of ofloxacin and forming a new progeny (1).<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-52 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" aria-label=\"slide-52\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2019\/04\/Figure3_Response_to_Antibiotics_slideshow.jpg\" height=\"400\" width=\"1000\" alt=\"Figure 3: Impact of antibiotics that target different cellular components on cellular and nucleoid morphology (1)\" class=\"slider-42 slide-52\" title=\"Figure3_Response_to_Antibiotics_slideshow\" \/><div class=\"caption-wrap\"><div class=\"caption\">Figure 3: Impact of antibiotics that target different cellular components on cellular and nucleoid morphology (1).<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><div id=\"panel-11-1-0-1\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce\" data-index=\"2\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><p>Our research focuses on how bacteria respond to and survive antibiotic treatment. We\u00a0are especially interested in bacterial persisters, which\u00a0are rare cell types in a population that can tolerate lethal doses of antibiotics that kill\u00a0their genetically identical kin. Unlike antibiotic resistant mutants, persisters have not acquired heritable genetic changes that allow them to grow in the presence of antibiotics. Rather, the persister phenotype is\u00a0transient.\u00a0Once the antibiotic is removed and cells resume growth, the phenotype is lost. As persisters are recalcitrant to antibiotic treatment, they can potentially fuel the development of relapsing chronic infections and antibiotic resistance.<\/p>\n<p>Our major goal\u00a0is to understand the triggers and survival strategies of bacterial persisters.\u00a0We use\u00a0genetic, biochemical, and\u00a0systems\u00a0biology approaches to investigate\u00a0how fluctuations in the host environment impact persistence and how bacteria respond to and recover from treatment with antibiotics that target\u00a0different cellular components. Contact us to find out more.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div id=\"panel-11-1-0-2\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce panel-last-child\" data-index=\"3\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><hr \/>\n<p>(1) Reference for figures 2 and 3: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/30862812\">Enhanced antibiotic resistance development from fluoroquinolone persisters after a single exposure to antibiotic.<\/a> Barrett, Theresa C; <strong>Mok, Wendy W K<\/strong>; Murawski, Allison M; Brynildsen, Mark P\u00a0Nature communications\u00a02019 Mar;10(1):1177<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research Our research focuses on how bacteria respond to and survive antibiotic treatment. We\u00a0are especially interested in bacterial persisters, which\u00a0are rare cell types in a population that can tolerate lethal doses of antibiotics that kill\u00a0their genetically identical kin. Unlike antibiotic resistant mutants, persisters have not acquired heritable genetic changes that allow them to grow in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-blank.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 18:39:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/mok-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}