Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus colonises the skin of more than 90% of individuals with the inflammatory skin disease atopic dermatitis (AD) and exacerbates the disease. Adhesion of S. aureus to corneocytes in the stratum corneum is a key step during the initiation of colonisation and our research aims to uncover the bacterial and host factors contributing to this process. Here we explore the adhesive events that mediate bacterial adhesion to skin corneocytes. We identify bacterial cell wall-anchored proteins that promote adhesion to AD corneocytes and show that S. aureus exploits the aberrant display of the protein corneodesmosin on the corneocyte surface to adhere strongly to the stratum corneum in AD.

Biography: Joan Geoghegan is a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham. Her research career has focused on understanding the molecular basis of colonisation and infection by Staphylococcus aureus. Her PhD training at Trinity College Dublin with Tim Foster involved the biochemical and biophysical characterisation of staphylococcal fibrinogen-binding proteins, carrying out part of her thesis work in the laboratory of Magnus Höök (Texas A&M University). As a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin, Joan initiated early studies on the molecular basis of protein-mediated biofilm accumulation in S. aureus. In 2012 she established her research group studying staphylococcal pathogenesis at Trinity College Dublin and in 2020 she was appointed to the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham. Joan’s current research focuses on defining the bacterial factors that underlie the success of S. aureus as a human pathogen. She is interested in elucidating mechanisms used by the bacterium to interact with host proteins and cells and to resist clearance by the immune system and interference from other microbes. A major aim of this work is to identify new targets for the treatment and prevention of bacterial infection. Joan was awarded the WH Pierce Prize by the Society for Applied Microbiology in 2020.