Welcome to the Versalovic Lab
Therapeutic Microbiology - Probiotics Laboratory (Baylor College of Medicine)
Our mission is to explore how beneficial microbes can promote health, relieve disease, and prevent illness. As a team of scientists, we seek to unravel the molecular mechanisms of probiosis in order to improve global health with emphases on digestive, inflammatory, and oral diseases.
We seek to understand commensal bacteria and commensal-derived probiotics to modulate mammalian immunity and intestinal physiology. Our laboratory explores the biology of probiotic or beneficial bacteria that are derived from the commensal microbiota. Probiotic Lactobacillus strains, known as "immunoprobiotics," suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines and modulate intracellular signaling pathways in macrophages and intestinal epithelial cells. Secreted factors derived from probiotics, or "immunomodulins," regulate immune cell signaling and may hold the key to understanding molecular mechanisms of probiosis. Natural and engineered probiotics are being developed to treat patients with inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and to prevent gastrointestinal infections in human populations.
Probiotics for Medicine
Molecular Microbiology Laboratory (Texas Children's Hospital)
Our mission is to seek to provide the highest standard of patient care at Texas Children's Hospital through research and implementation of cutting-edge molecular technology for diagnostic testing.
The Division of Molecular Pathology at Texas Children's Hospital includes the molecular microbiology laboratory with a state-of-the-art research in methods for diagnosing pediatric infections. Our laboratory is also developing new strategies for the diagnosis of pediatric infections by molecular methods. We are developing immuno-PCR strategies in order to facilitate ultrasensitive detection of biomarkers and proteins including cytokines. Real-time PCR, real-time DNA sequencing, and DNA typing by microfluidics are being developed and utilized for studies of pediatric infections including infectious colitis, gastroenteritis, sepsis, and respiratory tract infections.
Molecular Solutions for Pediatric Infecions
James Versalovic, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pathology
jamesv@bcm.edu