Craig Lab

The bacterial Type IV pilus apparatus is a remarkable molecular machine that rapidly assembles and disassembles protein polymers to perform diverse functions related to microbial pathogenesis.

Work in the Craig lab focuses on Type IV pili, hairlike filaments on the surfaces of many bacterial pathogens, such as Vibrio cholerae, pathogenic Escherichia coli and Neisseria spp. Type IV pili are dynamic filaments that rapidly polymerize and depolymerize in order to perform diverse functions critical to bacterial virulence, including twitching motility, host cell adhesion, microcolony formation, DNA uptake and protein secretion. We use structural biology, bacterial genetics and computational approaches to explore pilus structure, function and assembly with the goal of targeting and even expoliting these molecular machines for antimicrobial therapies.

Email: 

LISA CRAIG
licraig@sfu.ca

Lab Room:

SSB 7169

Lab Phone:

(778) 782-7141 

Selected Publications

  • Barnier, J.-P., Meyer, J., Kolappan, S., Bouzinba-Ségard, B., Gesbert, G., Jamet, A., Frapy, E., Schönherr-Hellec, S., Capel, E., Virion, Z., Dupuis, M., Bille, E., Morand, P., Schmitt, T., Sandrine Bourdoulous, S., Nassif, Craig, L.* and Coureuil, M.* (2021). The minor pilin PilV provides a conserved adhesion site throughout the antigenically variable meningococcal type IV pilus. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. e2109364118. https://www.pnas.org/content/118/45/e2109364118.short?rss=1
  • Gutierrez-Rodarte, M., Kolappan, S., Burrell, B. and Craig, L. (2019) The Vibrio cholerae minor pilin TcpB mediates uptake of the cholera toxin phage CTXf. J Biol Chem, 294, 15698-15710, PMID: 31471320. http://www.jbc.org/content/294/43/15698.full?sid=e9257e27-c932-45d8-9700-1dcc34891b4d
  • Craig, L., Forest, K.T. and Maier, B.T. (2019). Type IV pili: dynamics, biophysics and functional consequences. Nat Rev Microbiol 17, PMID: 30988511. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-019-0195-4

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